The effect of BUdR on the cycle of irradiated and unirradiated meristematic cells of Vicia faba

Abstract

The cell cycle time of the meristematic cells of Vicia faba was approximately 20 hr in both the control cells and in the cells treated with TdR (1·6 × 10−5 m ) for 24 hr. Cells treated for 24 hr with an equimolar concentration of BUdR showed prolongation of their cell cycle time to about 24 hr. The main detectable change in the cell cycle was the lengthening of the S phase which was increased to 13 hr from 8 hr which was the value for the S phase of the control and TdR-treated cells. BUdR-treated cells exhibited more radiation-induced damage, measured as micronuclei, than control or TdR-treated cells. The radiosensitization effect was manifested as an increase in the percent of damaged cells but not as an increase in the damage per damaged cell. An attempt to correlate the BUdR-induced changes in the cell cycle with the BUdR-induced increase in radiation response was presented.