Possible error-prone repair of neoplastic transformation induced by fission-spectrum neutrons.

We have examined the effect of fission-spectrum neutrons from the JANUS reactor at Argonne National Laboratory, delivered either as acute or protracted irradiation, on the incidence of neoplastic transformation in the C3H 10T1/2 mouse embryo cell line. Acute exposures were delivered at 10-38 cGy min-1, protracted exposures at 0.086 or 0.43 cGy min-1. The total doses for both ranged from 2.4 to 350 cGy. In the low dose region (2.4-80 cGy), there was a large enhancement in transformation frequency when the neutrons were delivered at the low dose rates compared with the high dose rates, but the survival of the cells was not significantly different between the two exposures conditions. Analysis of the initial parts of the curves shows that the regression line for protracted doses is about 9 times steeper than that for single acute exposures. Finally, the possibility is discussed that an "error-prone" repair process may be causing the enhanced transformation frequency by protracted neutron exposures.