Radiation-Induced Cellular Reproductive Death and Chromosome Aberrations

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Abstract
If a major mode of cell killing by ionizing radiation is the death of cells containing visible chromosomal aberrations, as for example from anaphase-bridge formation at mitosis, then cells bearing such aberrations should be selectively eliminated from the population, resulting in an increased survival potential for the population remaining at each succeeding cell generation. Using synchronized V79B Chinese hamster cells, the aberration frequency and the colony-forming ability of mitotic cells were measured at each of the first 3 generations following irradiation in G1. Cells were resynchronized by mechanical harvest at each succeeding mitosis after irradiation to avoid mixing of generations in the cell population at later sampling times. As anticipated, the chromosome aberration frequencies decreased markedly from the 1st to the 2nd and from the 2nd to the 3rd mitosis. The surviving fraction was virtually the same for plating assays carried out immediately after irradiation, at the 1st, or at the 2nd mitosis. The surviving fraction was significantly higher for cells reaching the 3rd postirradiation mitosis. Survival and aberration frequencies were assayed again at approximately the 14th postirradiation division, by which time the irradiated and control populations were not significantly different.

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