Misonidazole and potentially lethal damage.

The existence of potentially lethal damage (PLD) is demonstrated in exponentially growing CHO cells exposed to misonidazole in hypoxia. The method of hypertonic post-treatment of cells was used in these studies. Misonidazole-induced PLD differs in many characteristics from radiation-induced PLD. The repair kinetics of misonidazole-induced PLD are much slower than for the repair of radiation-induced PLD (hours vs. minutes). No significant repair of misonidazole-induced PLD took place at 25 degrees C. Other differences are discussed. Hypertonic post-treatment of irradiated cells which had been pre-incubated with misonidazole to non-toxic levels, gave survival data consistent with the interpretation that no radiation PLD can be induced in such cells.