Comparative influence of hyperthermia and ionizing radiation on cycle and mitosis lengths in EMT6 mouse tumour cells.

With exponentially growing EMT6 mouse tumour cells in vitro, we have compared the effects of a dose of ionizing radiation and different temperature-time combinations on the lengths of the cell cycle and of mitosis using time-lapse cinematography on individual cells. The radiation dose and various temperature-time combinations all produced 50 per cent lethality. The hyperthermia treatments between 42 and 45 degrees C all caused a mitosis delay (MD) which was greater than that induced by ionizing radiation. The MD was greater with increasing temperature. In contrast, hyperthermia also induced a mitosis lengthening (ML) but this was only of the same order of magnitude as radioinduced ML. The results argue in favour of different mechanisms underlying thermoinduced MD and ML.