Influence of pre-treatment with DNA-damaging agents on hyperthermic potentiation in cell killing of ultraviolet light-irradiated Dictyostelium discoideum.

Heat treatment at 30 degrees C for 15 min immediately after ultraviolet (UV) irradiation enhanced cell killing of Dictyostelium discoideum. However, when the cells were UV-irradiated and cultured at 23 degrees C for 30 min before giving UV irradiation and heat treatment, the enhancement of cell killing by heat treatment immediately after post-UV irradiation was depressed. Similar depressions in the heat enhancement of cell killing of UV-irradiated cells were also observed in the case of the cells cultured after pretreatment with 4-nitroquinoline 1-oxide, cis-platinum(II) diaminedichloride or 8-methoxypsoralen photoaddition, but not with N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine or methylmethanesulphonate. These results suggest that the depression in heat enhancement in cell killing of UV-irradiated cells may be deeply related with kinds of DNA lesions or DNA repair processes for them.