Re: Lab researchers uncover new effects of radon emissions on

[Bruce Busby <bbusby@umich.edu>]

no, not really... not indirect as so far defined, but things change

most free radicals only have a lifetime in the nano to pico second or less
time frame, which means they can only travel a short distance. The
indirect effect as normally defined is only important w/in ~10-12 nm
(max!) of the DNA itself. This is then well inside the nucleus of the
cell, and very close to the DNA which is at about 2 nm wide.

Then, I am not sure what they are really saying they found, and think I
should read more about their work before talking about it. There are
signal pathways in the cellular membraines that could be affected by
extracellular radicals, along with binding-receptor sites for signals
(growth factor, etc) which if affected/damaged, could lead to increased
proliferation, propagation, and reduced apotosis, i.e., better
chance for oncogenic transformation/promotion. Have to see how it pans
out. 

-Bruce Busby

On Sat, 19 Jul 1997 Ryanchp@aol.com wrote:

> isn't this simply called the indirect action which results from chemical
> entities such as free radicals,etc.?
> 
> ryanchp@aol.com
>