Re: Number of chromosome repairs

[Bernard L Cohen <blc+@pitt.edu>]

	According to Myron Pollycove, who is an expert in this area,
chemical and spontaneous processes cause an average of 150,000 single
strand breaks and 1.0 double strand breaks in each cell every day.
Multiply this by the trillion cells in the body to get the total number.
A large fraction of these are presumably repaired. Do you consider repair
of the DNA molecule to be "chromosome repair"?

Bernard L. Cohen
Physics Dept.
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Tel: (412)624-9245
Fax: (412)624-9163
e-mail: blc+@pitt.edu


On Tue, 27 Jan 1998, Robert Loesch wrote:

> Dear Radsafers:
> 
> A staff member has asked the following question:
> 
> What is the average number of chromosome repairs per day?
> 
> I guess around 100K, but would appreciate something a bit
> more scientifically concrete.
> 
> Thanks in advance.
> 
> Bob
> 
> =======================================================
>             _/ _/                _/ _/              _/_/_/_/            Robert M. Loesch
>           _/     _/           _/     _/           _/                      US Department of Energy
>         _/         _/     _/           _/       _/                      EH-52, GTN, 270CC
>       _/          _/   _/               _/    _/_/_/_/            19901 Germantown Road	
>     _/         _/       _/           _/     _/                      Germantown, MD  20874-1290
>   _/        _/           _/      _/       _/                      Tel: 301 903-4443;  Fax: -7773
> _/ _/ _/                _/ _/          _/_/_/_/            loesch@spok.eh.doe.gov
> =======================================================
>               "The definition of a public health disaster is a catastrophe so large
>                    that an epidemiologic study can detect it."    David Ozonoff
>