Measurement of the kinetics of DNA double strand break repair in Ehrlich ascites tumour cells using the unwinding method.

Two main components of DNA strand break repair have been found using the unwinding method. The first has a time constant (t37) of some minutes and the second, much slower component, a time constant of several hours. The time constant for the slower component of repair was found to vary with the conditions of incubation and to depend on the quality of the radiation. The t37 values obtained for slow repair under various conditions after X-irradiation and after alpha-irradiation were found to be close to those for repair of double strand breaks as measured by velocity sedimentation. Values for initial breaks, obtained by extrapolation of slow repair data back to time zero, were also close to those obtained for double strand breaks. We therefore propose that the unwinding method can be a useful technique for monitoring the repair of double strand breaks.