In several researches, it has been demonstrated that charged particles can induce more complex DNA damages. These complex damages have higher ability to cause the cell death or cell carcinogenesis. For this reason, clarifying the DNA repair mechanism after charged particle irradiation plays an important role in the development of charged particle therapy and space exploration. Unfortunately, the detail spatiotemporal kinetic of DNA damage repair is still unclear. In this study, we used gamma-H2AX protein to investigate the spatiotemporal kinetics of DNA double strand breaks in alpha-particle irradiated HeLa cells. The result shows that the intensity of gamma-H2AX foci increased gradually, and reached to its maximum at 30 min after irradiation. A good linear relationship can be observed between foci intensity and radiation dose. After 30 min, the gamma-H2AX foci intensity was decreased with time passed, but remained a large portion (similar to 50%) at 48 h passed. The data show that the dissolution rate of gamma-H2AX foci agreed with two components DNA repairing model. These results suggest that charged particles can induce more complex DNA damages and causing the retardation of DNA repair. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.