Abstract
The kinetics of DNA strand break repair was studied in exponentially-growing CHO cells after X-irradiation with doses of 3, 9, 30, 60 and 90 Gy. DNA strand breaks were measured using the alkaline unwinding technique. For all X-ray doses applied the kinetics of DNA strand break repair consisted of fast, intermediate and slow phases. The latter, which was interpreted as the repair kinetic of DNA double-strand breaks, was best described by an exponential decline. The actual repair half-time of double-strand break repair, τdsb, was obtained from the slope of the slow component after subtracting the number of non-reparable breaks measured 24 h after irradiation. This half-time was found to be independent of the dose applied with a mean value of τdsb = 168 ± 10 min. This result indicated that the repair of double-strand breaks was unsaturated for doses up to 90 Gy. The repair kinetics of the breaks of the fast and intermediate phases were found to be dependent on the dose applied. These kinetics were associated...