A complicated character of the cytogenetic injury dependence upon radiation dose was revealed after low-level gamma irradiation of Vicia faba seedlings and Chinese hamster fibroblasts. The dependence was linear with low-level secondary exposure to 70 GeV protons. The authors discuss a threshold nature of induction of the cytogenetic damage repair responsible for a high outcome of damages under the effect of low-level gamma radiation.
In present work, we investigated the genetic instability in mice of F1, of F2 and of F3 generations born from males irradiated by a low-dose rate of high-LET radiation that simulates the spectral and component composition of radiation fields formed in the conditions of high-altitude flights in vivo in polychromatic erythrocytes of bone marrow using the micronucleus test. Two-month-old males of SHK white mongrel mice were used. Irradiation was performed for 24 h a day in the radiation field behind the concrete shield of the U-70 accelerator of 70 GeV protons (Serpukhov) to accumulate doses of 11.5, of 21.5 and of 31.5 cGy (1 cGy/day). The experiments demonstrated that in mice of F1 generation born from males irradiated with doses of 11.5, 21.5 and of 31.5 cGy, an increase in sensitivity to additional irradiation with a dose of 1.5 Gy of gamma-radiation and the absence of adaptive response compared with the descendants of unirradiated males occur. In contrast to F1 generation genetic instability in mice of the F2 and F3 generations was revealed only by the absence of adaptive response. These data indicate a genetic instability in F1, F2 and F3 generations born from irradiated males.
Chinese hamster cells in culture, exposed to a dose of 2 Gy during the G2 phase of the cell cycle, were used to compare the results obtained from investigations of chromosome lesions after chemical modification by caffeine (10(-3) and 10(-2) M) and after premature condensation of chromosomes. The data obtained exhibited a similarity not only in the total yield of aberrations (which was thrice as high as that in metaphases with the same radiation dose), but also in the frequency of aberrations of different types. On the basis of the data obtained the potential radiation-induced chromosome lesions could be quantitated.
As estimated by the cytogenetic injury induced in Chinese hamster cells by secondary 70-GeV proton radiation, phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride, an inhibitor of chromatin proteinases, has a radioprotective effect. The poly(ADP)-ribosylation-independent participation of the inhibitor in radiation cytogenetic mutagenesis has been shown.
Supersensitivity of Chinese hamster cells to low doses of gamma-radiation (dose range 5 to 50 cGy) was revealed by means of the cytokinesis-block micronucleus test. Treating these cells with caffeine (repair inhibitor) and mercaptoethylamine (radioprotector) and exposing them to secondary radiation emitted by protons with an energy of 70 GeV showed that this supersensitivity is associated with the absence of cytogenetic repair. When cells at the G2 phase received preliminary doses of 30 and 75 cGy before being irradiated at 150 cGy, the incidence of cytogenetic damage decreased, i.e., an adaptive cell response resulting from a radiation-induced mitotic delay was observed.
The goal of the present work was to study the effect of infrared light (IRL) at a wavelength of 850 nm modulated by a frequency of 101 Hz with a mode of power 22 mW/cm2 and X-rays with a voltage of 200 kV at a dose rate of 1 Gy/min on the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in blood cells using luminol-dependent chemiluminescence, as well as on the induction of a cytogenetic damage in bone marrow cells of mice by the in vivo micronucleus test. The experiments performed have shown: 1) the level of the ROS production in blood of the mice exposed to IRL and X-rays at an adapting dose of 0.1 Gy reaches the peak value after 0.5 h and drops to the ROS level in untreated animals 5 h after either exposure; 2) irradiation of mice with IRL and X-rays at a dose of 0.1 Gy induces adaptive responses both in blood cells and bone marrow cells of mice. These adaptive responses were revealed only 5 h after both exposures, when the level of ROS production decreased to the ROS level in untreated animals; they are equal in magnitude and dynamics and persist up to 2 months.
The frequency of micronuclei was estimated in bone marrow polychromatic erythrocytes (PCEs) of mice gamma-irradiated in vivo at doses of 5-50 cGy. The dose-effect curve was found to have a complex stepwise pattern with three consequent segments: (1) high radiosensitivity, (2) a significant decrease in radiosensitivity, and (3) an increase in radiosensitivity.
The data are reviewed on the role of various DNA lesions in the formation of structural damages to chromosomes. The concepts are developed that the molecular damages to nuclear DNA induce chromosome mutagenesis.