title: Increased repair of gamma-induced DNA double-strand breaks at lower dose-rate in CHO cells.
abstract: DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) are highly cell damaging. We asked whether for a given dose a longer irradiation time would be advantageous for the repair of DSBs. Varying the gamma-irradiation dose and its delivery time (0.05 Gy/min low dose-rate (LDR) compared with 3.5 Gy/min high dose-rate), confluent Chinese hamster ovary cells (CHO-K1) and Ku80 mutant cells (xrs-6) deficient in nonhomologous end-joining (NHEJ) were irradiated in agarose plugs at room temperature using a cesium-137 gamma-ray source. We used pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) to measure DSBs in terms of the fraction of activity released (FAR). At LDR, one third of DSBs were repaired in CHO-K1 but not in xrs-6 cells, indicating the involvement of NHEJ in the repair of gamma-induced DSBs at a prolonged irradiation incubation time. To improve DSB measurements, we introduced in our PFGE protocol an antioxidant at the cell lysis step, thus avoiding free-radical side reactions on DNA and spurious DSBs. Addition of the metal chelator deferoxamine (DFO) decreased more efficiently the basal DSB level than did reduced glutathione (GSH), showing that measuring DSBs in the absence of DFO reduces precision and underestimates the role of NHEJ in the dose-rate effect on DSB yield.
authors.affiliation: Institut Curie-Section de Recherche, UMR2027 CNRS/I.C., LCR V28 CEA, Bâtiment 110, Centre Universitaire d'Orsay, F-91405 Orsay CEDEX, France.
authors.forename: Didier
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Boucher
authors.forename: Joëlle
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hindo
authors.forename: Dietrich
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Averbeck
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016466:CHO Cells; D006224:Cricetinae; D003412:Cricetulus; D004249:DNA Damage; D004260:DNA Repair / Q000528:radiation effects*; D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D004587:Electrophoresis, Agar Gel; D005720:Gamma Rays