The effect of intracellular pH on radiation damage to mammalian cells

In experiments with Chinese hamster cells and Ehrlich ascites tumor cells it has been shown that a decrease in intracellular pH from 7.0 to 6.0, produced by 0.1 M phosphate buffer, ameliorates the radiation injury to cells (DMF = 1.35) with respect to their clonogenic capacity and induction of chromosome aberrations. The rate of repair of DNA single-strand breaks, within the pH range under study, is invariable.