Morphological transformation of Syrian hamster embryo cells by low doses of fission neutrons delivered at different dose rates

Abstract

Both induction of cell transformation and killing were examined with Syrian hamster embryo (SHE) fibroblasts exposed to low doses of JANUS fission-spectrum neutrons delivered at high (10.3 cGy/min) and low (0.43 and 0.086 cGy/min) dose rates. Second-passage cells were irradiated in mass cultures, then cloned over feeder cells. Morphologically transformed colonies were identified 8-10 days later. Cell killing was independent of dose rate, but the yield of transformation was greater after low-dose-rate irradiations. Decreasing the neutron dose-rate from 10.3 to 0.086 cGy/min resulted in a two- to threefold increase in the yield of transformation for neutron exposures below 50 cGy, and enhancement which was consistently observed in repetitive experiments in different radiosensitive SHE cell preparations. 43 refs., 5 figs., 1 tab.