X-ray sensitivity of synchronized Chinese hamster cells irradiated during hypoxia.

Synchronized Chinese hamster cells were irradiated in air and in nitrogen at various points in the cell cycle. The irradiations were carried out after flushing with air or nitrogen with the medium removed from the mono-layer of cells. Under these conditions the dose-modifying factor, or oxygen enhancement ratio, was between 2.0 and 2.3 for survival in asynchronous cells. The variation in x-ray sensitivity evident as the cell progresses through its cycle was not differentially affected by its state of oxygenation at the time of irradiation. The x-ray age-response curves for irradiation in air and in nitrogen were similar at each point, except for the dose-modifying factor. This was true not only for the cells of a normal short generation time (10 hours) subline of the V79 line but also for a longer generation time (with longer GC period) subline derived from a "small colony". The variation in radiosensitivity as the cell progresses through its cycle must therefore be due to factors other than change in oxygen tension within the cell. The fact that the same variation in x-ray sensitivity with age exists for hypoxic cells as for well-oxygenated cells has a bearing on the radiotherapy of tumors which contain cells at low oxygen tensions.