X-ray induced DNA double-strand breakage and rejoining in a radiosensitive human renal carcinoma cell line estimated by CHEF electrophoresis.

Cell intrinsic radiosensitivity is of great importance in radiation therapy, but its molecular basis is still uncertain. Since DNA double strand breakage is considered to be the most important lesion related to cell death induced by ionizing radiation, the relationship between DNA double-strand breakage, repair and cell survival was investigated in three cell lines: Chinese hamster cell (CHO-K1), human fibroblast and human renal carcinoma (Tu 25). The D0 values after X-irradiation were 1.73, 1.23, and 0.89 Gy, respectively, showing that Tu 25 was the most sensitive among them. DNA double-strand breaks were measured by CHEF electrophoresis, the initial yield of double-strand break per dose in the three cell lines was almost the same, and no correlation to cell survival was found. However, the rejoining capacity for DNA double-strand break differed. After a dose of 20 Gy, the repair rate was markedly lower in Tu 25, with a half repair time of 40 min, as compared with the other two cell lines with half repair times of 15 min. The results strongly supported the correlation between the repair capacity for DNA double-strand break and cell survival. It was concluded that DNA repair capacity is one of the determinants of cell radiosensitivity. Estimation of DNA double-strand break rejoining by CHEF was suggested as a predictive assay for radiosensitivity of human tumor cells.