## 3 Results
### Analysis of Correlation between H1299 Cells and Nuclei Distributions in Response to MMW Irradiation  
The size of a cell and its nucleus are interlinked [22] and biologically regulated. The ratio between nuclear and cytoplasmic volumes, also termed as the karyoplasmic ratio (N/C) is crucial to cellular integrity [20]. The effect of irradiation on the N/C ratio was therefore investigated with and without MMW treatment. High variability of the N/C ratio was observed by qualitative microscopic analysis comparing the nuclei and cells sizes and quantitative measurements of their sizes (Table 3). N/C ratio was 32-36% in the control group on Day 1 and remained consistent within this range over the observation period of 7-14 days of physiological incubation. In response to 2 min irradiation on Day 1, the N/C ratio shifted to 42% in the cell populations and decreased to 28-29% over 7-14 days of experimental observation following MMW treatment. In response to 4 min irradiation on Day 1, the N/C ratio shifted to 52% in the cell populations and reached 57-66% over 7-14 days of experimental observation following MMW treatment. This indicates that increase in energy dosage on the irradiated H1299 cells reduced their ability to repair themselves. The threshold limit of this ability was crossed in response to 10 min irradiation shifting the N/C ratio to 78% in the cell populations on Day 1 and all the cells dying a couple of days later. Interestingly, the increase in N/C ratio did not arise only due to an increase in nuclear size but also corresponded with a reduction in size of the cell cytoplasm (Table 3), indicative of cell shrinkage and the dose dependent accelerated apoptosis cell mortality effect reported previously [19] in response to MMW treatment. Thus, a de-correlation effect of irradiation on Day 7 and 14 after MMW treatment is observed. Illustratively, under the 4 min exposure regime irradiated cells presented an increase in N/C ratio to 52-66% over the observation period of 7-14 days following MMW treatment (Table 3). Long-term effects observed on Days 7 and 14 were accompanied not only by changes in the cell and nuclei sizes but also by changes in their geometric relationship. Further, the exposure time had a distinct effect on the N/C ratio. The relationship between the size of the cells and their nuclei with the observed changes were examined for the cell population subgroups using Pearson's correlation coefficients (Table 4). \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{|c||c|c|c|c|c|c|} \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Subintervals**} & **2 Ma** & **2 Mb** & **2 Mc** & **4 Ma** & **4 Mb** & **4 Mc** & **10 Ma** \\  & **(Day1)** & **(Day7)** & **(Day14)** & **(Day1)** & **(Day7)** & **(Day14)** & **(Day1)** \\ \hline
**1–2** & \(-30\) & \(+150\) & \(+125\) & \(-200\) & \(-30\) & \(-150\) & \(-170\) \\
**3–4** & \(\approx\) & \(-300\) & \(-25\) & \(-25\) & \(-200\) & \(-100\) & \(-120\) \\
**4–5** & \(+30\) & \(\approx\) & \(-150\) & \(+30\) & \(+30\) & \(\approx\) & \(-5\) \\
**6–7** & \(+100\) & \(\approx\) & \(-30\) & \(+300\) & \(+30\) & \(+30\) & \(+100\) \\
**8–10** & \(<\)5 & \(<\)5 & \(<\)5 & \(+120\) & \(+20\) & \(+200\) & \(+250\) \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 2: Changes in nuclei size distribution compared with control groups (%). Subintervals denote the subgroups of cells with different sized nuclei as described in Figure 3. The values represent the percent change of irradiated nuclei size relative to control (%). Red represents a decrease and green represents an increase.