Relative efficiencies of three ultraviolet radiation wavelengths for cell killing and transformation in mouse cells in vitro.

C3H 10 T 1/2 clone 8 mouse cells were irradiated in vitro with three U.V. wavelengths 280, 254, and 230 nm. Two effects were investigated, survival and malignant transformation, and the relative efficiencies were determined for the three radiations. For transformation, these efficiencies were: 280nm:3.9; 254nm:5.1; 230nm:2.3 (transformations produced by 5 Jm-2 of U.V. for 1000 surviving cells). For cell killing the efficiencies were, in relative units, 34, 100, and 50 respectively. These efficiencies are in agreement with the hypothesis that the main chromophore for both effects is the nucleic acid, and not the protein moiety of the genome. This conclusion agrees with that previously reached by other investigators, but our present results obtained with the short wave-length 230 nm provide an especially strong new argument.