title: The action of caffeine on X-irradiated HeLa cells. VII. Evidence that caffeine enhances expression of potentially lethal radiation damage.
abstract: HeLa cells irradiated with 2 Gy of 220-kV X rays suffer a 60-70% loss of colony-forming ability which is increased to 90% by postirradiation treatment with 10 mM caffeine for 6 hr. The detailed postirradiation patterns of cell death and sister-cell fusion in such cultures and in cultures in which the colony-forming ability was brought to about the same level by treatment with a larger (4 Gy) X-ray dose alone or by longer (48 hr) treatment with 10 mM caffeine alone were recorded by time-lapse cinemicrography. Because the patterns of cell death and fusion differ radically in irradiated and in caffeine-treated cultures, the response of the additional cells killed by the combined treatment can be identified as X-ray induced rather than caffeine induced. The appearance of cultures after several days of incubation confirms the similarity of the post-treatment patterns of proliferation in cultures suffering enhanced killing to those occurring in cultures treated with larger doses of X rays alone. It is concluded that X rays do not sensitize cells to caffeine, but rather that caffeine enhances the expression of potentially lethal radiation-induced damage.
mesh_terms: D002110:Caffeine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002459:Cell Fusion / Q000187:drug effects / Q000528:radiation effects; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects / Q000528:radiation effects; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D006367:HeLa Cells / Q000187:drug effects / Q000528:radiation effects*; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D002110:Caffeine