[Formation and repair of DNA breaks in bone marrow cells of the irradiated rat].

The method of sedimentation was used to study the induction and repair of DNA breaks in irradiated rat bone marrow cells. It was shown that a total population of bone marrow cells did not differ from that of cultured L5178Y cells with regard to the yield of single-strand breaks and the ratio between double- and single-strand breaks. The absence of double-strand breaks and incomplete repair of single-strand breaks (70%) were noted with doses ranging from 20 to 100 Gy. The quantity of unrepaired single-strand breaks did not correlate with that of double-strand breaks, induced by the same radiation doses. This is indicative of the capacity of bone marrow cells for repair in a short-term culture.