Adaption of the Cytokinesis-Block Micronucleus Cytome Assay for Improved Triage Biodosimetry.

The purpose of this work was to adapt a more advanced form of the cytokinesis-block micronucleus (CBMN) cytome assay for triage biodosimetry in the event of a mass casualty radiation incident. We modified scoring procedures for the CBMN cytome assay to optimize field deployability, dose range, accuracy, speed, economy, simplicity and stability. Peripheral blood of 20 donors was irradiated in vitro (0-6 Gy X ray, maximum photon energy 240 keV) and processed for CBMN. Initially, we assessed two manual scoring strategies for accuracy: 1. Conventional scoring, comprised of micronucleus (MN) frequency per 1,000 binucleated (BN) cells (MN/1,000 BN cells); and 2. Evaluation of 1,000, 2,000 and 3,000 cells in total and different cellular subsets based on MN formation and proliferation (e.g., BN cells with and without MN, mononucleated cells). We used linear and logistic regression models to identify the cellular subsets related closest to dose with the best discrimination ability among different doses/dose categories. We validated the most promising subsets and their combinations with 16 blind samples covering a dose range of 0-8.3 Gy. Linear dose-response relationships comparable to the conventional CBMN assay (r(2) = 0.86) were found for BN cells with MN (r(2) = 0.84) and BN cells without MN (r(2) = 0.84). Models of combined cell counts (CCC) of BN cells with and without MN (BN(+MN) and BN(-MN)) with mononucleated cells (Mono) improved this relationship (r(2) = 0.92). Conventional CBMN discriminated dose categories up to 3 Gy with a concordance between 0.96-1.0 upon scoring 1,000 total cells. In 1,000 BN cells, concordances were observed for conventional CBMN up to 4 Gy as well as BN(+MN) or BN(-MN) (about 0.85). At doses of 4-6 Gy, the concordance of conventional CBMN, BN(+MN) and BN(-MN) declined (about 0.55). We found about 20% higher concordance and more precise dose estimates of irradiated and blinded samples for CCC (Mono + BN(+MN)) after scoring 1,000 total cells. Blinded sample analysis revealed that the mean absolute difference (MAD) of dose estimates and the number of dose estimates outside the ±0.5 Gy interval based on CCC (Mono + BN(+MN)) was comparable to conventional CBMN for doses ≤4 Gy when scoring 3,000 total cells or more. At doses >4-8.3 Gy, the MAD of CCC (Mono + BN(+MN)) declined to half of the MADs observed for conventional CBMN, suggesting that the combined cell counts approach improved the discrimination ability. Conventional CBMN at 1,000 total-cell counts performed as efficiently as counting 1,000 BN cells. Discriminating and counting only BN cells with and without MN after 1,000 BN cells at ≤4 Gy revealed performances similar to conventional CBMN. After 3,000 total cells were scored, CCC (Mono + BN(+MN)) was superior to conventional CBMN at >4 Gy up to about 8 Gy. Our modification of CBMN evaluations saved time compared to the widely established semiautomated MN scoring and extended the dose range up to approximately 6 Gy for triage biodosimetry.

Neutron exposures in human cells: bystander effect and relative biological effectiveness.

Bystander effects have been observed repeatedly in mammalian cells following photon and alpha particle irradiation. However, few studies have been performed to investigate bystander effects arising from neutron irradiation. Here we asked whether neutrons also induce a bystander effect in two normal human lymphoblastoid cell lines. These cells were exposed to fast neutrons produced by targeting a near-monoenergetic 50.5 MeV proton beam at a Be target (17 MeV average neutron energy), and irradiated-cell conditioned media (ICCM) was transferred to unirradiated cells. The cytokinesis-block micronucleus assay was used to quantify genetic damage in radiation-naïve cells exposed to ICCM from cultures that received 0 (control), 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 3 or 4 Gy neutrons. Cells grown in ICCM from irradiated cells showed no significant increase in the frequencies of micronuclei or nucleoplasmic bridges compared to cells grown in ICCM from sham irradiated cells for either cell line. However, the neutron beam has a photon dose-contamination of 5%, which may modulate a neutron-induced bystander effect. To determine whether these low doses of contaminating photons can induce a bystander effect, cells were irradiated with cobalt-60 at doses equivalent to the percent contamination for each neutron dose. No significant increase in the frequencies of micronuclei or bridges was observed at these doses of photons for either cell line when cultured in ICCM. As expected, high doses of photons induced a clear bystander effect in both cell lines for micronuclei and bridges (p<0.0001). These data indicate that neutrons do not induce a bystander effect in these cells. Finally, neutrons had a relative biological effectiveness of 2.0 ± 0.13 for micronuclei and 5.8 ± 2.9 for bridges compared to cobalt-60. These results may be relevant to radiation therapy with fast neutrons and for regulatory agencies setting standards for neutron radiation protection and safety.

Cytogenetic characterization of low-dose hyper-radiosensitivity in Cobalt-60 irradiated human lymphoblastoid cells.

The dose-effect relationships of cells exposed to ionizing radiation are frequently described by linear quadratic (LQ) models over an extended dose range. However, many mammalian cell lines, when acutely irradiated in G2 at doses ≤0.3Gy, show hyper-radiosensitivity (HRS) as measured by reduced clonogenic cell survival, thereby indicating greater cell lethality than is predicted by extrapolation from high-dose responses. We therefore hypothesized that the cytogenetic response in G2 cells to low doses would also be steeper than predicted by LQ extrapolation from high doses. We tested our hypothesis by exposing four normal human lymphoblastoid cell lines to 0-400cGy of Cobalt-60 gamma radiation. The cytokinesis block micronucleus assay was used to determine the frequencies of micronuclei and nucleoplasmic bridges. To characterize the dependence of the cytogenetic damage on dose, univariate and multivariate regression analyses were used to compare the responses in the low- (HRS) and high-dose response regions. Our data indicate that the slope of the response for all four cell lines at ≤20cGy during G2 is greater than predicted by an LQ extrapolation from the high-dose responses for both micronuclei and bridges. These results suggest that the biological consequences of low-dose exposures could be underestimated and may not provide accurate risk assessments following such exposures.

Fluorodeoxyuridine mediated cell cycle synchronization in S-phase increases the Auger radiation cell killing with 125I-iododeoxyuridine.

AIM: 125I-iododeoxyuridine is a potential Auger radiation therapy agent. Its incorporation in DNA of proliferating cells is enhanced by fluorodeoxyuridine. Here, we evaluated therapeutic activities of 125I-iododeoxyuridine in an optimized fluorodeoxyuridine pre-treatment inducing S-phase synchronization. METHODS: After S-phase synchronization by fluorodeoxyuridine, cells were treated with 125I-iododeoxyuridine. Apoptosis analysis and S-phase synchronization were studied by flow cytometry. Cell survival was determined by colony-forming assay. Based on measured growth parameters, the number of decays per cell that induced killing was extrapolated. RESULTS: Treatment experiments showed that 72 to 91% of synchronized cells were killed after 0.8 and 8 kBq/ml 125I-iododeoxyuridine incubation, respectively. In controls, only 8 to 38% of cells were killed by corresponding 125I-iododeoxyuridine activities alone and even increasing the activity to 80 kBq/ml gave only 42 % killing. Duplicated treatment cycles or repeated fluorodeoxyuridine pre-treatment allowed enhancing cell killing to >95 % at 8 kBq/ml 125I-iododeoxyuridine. About 50 and 160 decays per S-phase cells in controls and S-phase synchronization, respectively, were responsible for the observed cell killing at 0.8 kBq/ml radio-iododeoxyuridine. CONCLUSION: These data show the successful application of fluorodeoxyuridine that provided increased 125I-iododeoxyuridine Auger radiation cell killing efficacy through S-phase synchronization and high DNA incorporation of radio-iododeoxyuridine.

[High-dose gamma-irradiation enhance expression of transgene under control of immediate-early CMV promoter in stably transfected tumor cells].

Gamma-irradiation is a usual method to inactivate whole-cellular anticancer vaccines consisting viable tumor cells. To evaluate the effect of gamma-irradiation to transgene expression in tumor cells we constructed several stably transfected clones of human and mouse cell lines expressing transgenic GM-CSF or GFP under control of IE-CMV promoter. Irradiation of those cells with different doses (ranged from 20 to 100 Gr) of gamma-radiation caused loss of proliferation capacity with survival of the cells population clearly depended on irradiation dose. Cell-cycle staining reveals accumulation of the cells with G2/M DNA content and almost loss of cells in S-phase. Substantial proportion of irradiated cells shows beta-galactosidase activity and morphological changes associated with cell senescence. An irradiated cell shows no changes in the level of mitochondrial dehydrogenase activity regardless irradiation dose exposed. Irradiated cells retain their ability to express transgene. Moreover, amount of the secreted GM-CSF as well as MFI in GFP-expressing cells significantly increases after gamma-irradiation up to 10 fold for cells exposed with 100 Gr. Enhancing of the transgene expression in both human and mouse cells positively correlates with total dose of gamma-irradiation gained by the cells and demonstrates gradual nature. Overall, our results supports using of 100 Gr of gamma-irradiation as the optimal dose for whole-cell anticancer vaccine inactivation.

Thiamine prevents X-ray induction of genetic changes in human lymphocytes in vitro.

The effects of thiamine (vitamin B1) on the level of spontaneous or radiation-induced genetic changes in human lymphocytes in vitro were studied. Cultured lymphocytes were exposed to increasing concentrations of thiamine (0-500 microg/ml) and irradiated with X-rays. The DNA damage was estimated as the frequency of micronuclei and apoptotic or necrotic morphological changes in fixed cells. The results show that thiamine alone did not induce genetic changes. A significant decrease in the fraction of apoptotic and necrotic cells was observed in lymphocytes irradiated in the presence of vitamin B1 at concentrations between 1-100 microg/ml compared to those irradiated in the absence of thiamine. Vitamin B1 at 1 and 10 microg/ml decreased also the extent of radiation-induced formation of micronuclei. Vitamin B1 had no effect on radiation-induced cytotoxicity as measured by nuclear division index. The results indicate that vitamin B1 protects human cells from radiation-induced genetic changes.