Radiation epidemiology and health effects following low-level radiation exposure.

Radiation epidemiology is the study of human disease following radiation exposure to populations. Epidemiologic studies of radiation-exposed populations have been conducted for nearly 100 years, starting with the radium dial painters in the 1920s and most recently with large-scale studies of radiation workers. As radiation epidemiology has become increasingly sophisticated it is used for setting radiation protection standards as well as to guide the compensation programmes in place for nuclear weapons workers, nuclear weapons test participants, and other occupationally exposed workers in the United States and elsewhere. It is known with high assurance that radiation effects at levels above 100-150 mGy can be detected as evidenced in multiple population studies conducted around the world. The challenge for radiation epidemiology is evaluating the effects at low doses, below about 100 mGy of low-linear energy transfer radiation, and assessing the risks following low dose-rate exposures over years. The weakness of radiation epidemiology in directly studying low dose and low dose-rate exposures is that the signal, i.e. the excess numbers of cancers associated with low-level radiation exposure, is so very small that it cannot be seen against the very high background occurrence of cancer in the population, i.e. a lifetime risk of incidence reaching up to about 38% (i.e. 1 in 3 persons will develop a cancer in their lifetime). Thus, extrapolation models are used for the management of risk at low doses and low dose rates, but having adequate information from low dose and low dose-rate studies would be highly desirable. An overview of recently conducted radiation epidemiologic studies which evaluate risk following low-level radiation exposures is presented. Future improvements in risk assessment for radiation protection may come from increasingly informative epidemiologic studies, combined with mechanistic radiobiologic understanding of adverse outcome pathways, with both incorporated into biologically based models.

TOPAS-nBio: An Extension to the TOPAS Simulation Toolkit for Cellular and Sub-cellular Radiobiology.

The TOPAS Monte Carlo (MC) system is used in radiation therapy and medical imaging research, having played a significant role in making Monte Carlo simulations widely available for proton therapy related research. While TOPAS provides detailed simulations of patient scale properties, the fundamental unit of the biological response to radiation is a cell. Thus, our goal was to develop TOPAS-nBio, an extension of TOPAS dedicated to advance understanding of radiobiological effects at the (sub-)cellular, (i.e., the cellular and sub-cellular) scale. TOPAS-nBio was designed as a set of open source classes that extends TOPAS to model radiobiological experiments. TOPAS-nBio is based on and extends Geant4-DNA, which extends the Geant4 toolkit, the basis of TOPAS, to include very low-energy interactions of particles down to vibrational energies, explicitly simulates every particle interaction (i.e., without using condensed histories) and propagates radiolysis products. To further facilitate the use of TOPAS-nBio, a graphical user interface was developed. TOPAS-nBio offers full track-structure Monte Carlo simulations, integration of chemical reactions within the first millisecond, an extensive catalogue of specialized cell geometries as well as sub-cellular structures such as DNA and mitochondria, and interfaces to mechanistic models of DNA repair kinetics. We compared TOPAS-nBio simulations to measured and published data of energy deposition patterns and chemical reaction rates (G values). Our simulations agreed well within the experimental uncertainties. Additionally, we expanded the chemical reactions and species provided in Geant4-DNA and developed a new method based on independent reaction times (IRT), including a total of 72 reactions classified into 6 types between neutral and charged species. Chemical stage simulations using IRT were a factor of 145 faster than with step-by-step tracking. Finally, we applied the geometric/chemical modeling to obtain initial yields of double-strand breaks (DSBs) in DNA fibers for proton irradiations of 3 and 50 MeV and compared the effect of including chemical reactions on the number and complexity of DSB induction. Over half of the DSBs were found to include chemical reactions with approximately 5% of DSBs caused only by chemical reactions. In conclusion, the TOPAS-nBio extension to the TOPAS MC application offers access to accurate and detailed multiscale simulations, from a macroscopic description of the radiation field to microscopic description of biological outcome for selected cells. TOPAS-nBio offers detailed physics and chemistry simulations of radiobiological experiments on cells simulating the initially induced damage and links to models of DNA repair kinetics.

A New Standard DNA Damage (SDD) Data Format.

Our understanding of radiation-induced cellular damage has greatly improved over the past few decades. Despite this progress, there are still many obstacles to fully understand how radiation interacts with biologically relevant cellular components, such as DNA, to cause observable end points such as cell killing. Damage in DNA is identified as a major route of cell killing. One hurdle when modeling biological effects is the difficulty in directly comparing results generated by members of different research groups. Multiple Monte Carlo codes have been developed to simulate damage induction at the DNA scale, while at the same time various groups have developed models that describe DNA repair processes with varying levels of detail. These repair models are intrinsically linked to the damage model employed in their development, making it difficult to disentangle systematic effects in either part of the modeling chain. These modeling chains typically consist of track-structure Monte Carlo simulations of the physical interactions creating direct damages to DNA, followed by simulations of the production and initial reactions of chemical species causing so-called "indirect" damages. After the induction of DNA damage, DNA repair models combine the simulated damage patterns with biological models to determine the biological consequences of the damage. To date, the effect of the environment, such as molecular oxygen (normoxic vs. hypoxic), has been poorly considered. We propose a new standard DNA damage (SDD) data format to unify the interface between the simulation of damage induction in DNA and the biological modeling of DNA repair processes, and introduce the effect of the environment (molecular oxygen or other compounds) as a flexible parameter. Such a standard greatly facilitates inter-model comparisons, providing an ideal environment to tease out model assumptions and identify persistent, underlying mechanisms. Through inter-model comparisons, this unified standard has the potential to greatly advance our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of radiation-induced DNA damage and the resulting observable biological effects when radiation parameters and/or environmental conditions change.

Effects of very low fluences of high-energy protons or iron ions on irradiated and bystander cells.

In space, astronauts are exposed to radiation fields consisting of energetic protons and high atomic number, high-energy (HZE) particles at very low dose rates or fluences. Under these conditions, it is likely that, in addition to cells in an astronaut's body being traversed by ionizing radiation particles, unirradiated cells can also receive intercellular bystander signals from irradiated cells. Thus this study was designed to determine the dependence of DNA damage induction on dose at very low fluences of charged particles. Novel techniques to quantify particle fluence have been developed at the NASA Space Radiation Biology Laboratory (NSRL) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). The approach uses a large ionization chamber to visualize the radiation beam coupled with a scintillation counter to measure fluence. This development has allowed us to irradiate cells with 1 GeV/nucleon protons and iron ions at particle fluences as low as 200 particles/cm(2) and quantify biological responses. Our results show an increased fraction of cells with DNA damage in both the irradiated population and bystander cells sharing medium with irradiated cells after low fluences. The fraction of cells with damage, manifest as micronucleus formation and 53BP1 focus induction, is about 2-fold higher than background at doses as low as ∼0.47 mGy iron ions (∼0.02 iron ions/cell) or ∼70 µGy protons (∼2 protons/cell). In the irradiated population, irrespective of radiation type, the fraction of damaged cells is constant from the lowest damaging fluence to about 1 cGy, above which the fraction of damaged cells increases with dose. In the bystander population, the level of damage is the same as in the irradiated population up to 1 cGy, but it does not increase above that plateau level with increasing dose. The data suggest that at fluences of high-energy protons or iron ions less than about 5 cGy, the response in irradiated cell populations may be dominated by the bystander response.

Effects of heavy ions and energetic protons on normal human fibroblasts.

At the low particle fluences of radiation to which astronauts are exposed in space, "non-targeted" effects such as the bystander response may have increased significance. The radiation-induced bystander effect is the occurrence of biological responses in unirradiated cells near to or sharing medium with cells traversed by radiation. The objectives of this study were to establish the responses of AG01522 diploid human fibroblasts after exposure to several heavy ions and energetic protons, as compared to X-rays, and to obtain initial information on the bystander effect in terms of cell clonogenic survival after Fe ion irradiation. Using a clonogenic survival assay, relative biological effectiveness (RBE) values at 10% survival were 2.5, 2.3, 1.0 and 1.2 for 1 GeV/amu Fe, 1 GeV/amu Ti, 290 MeV/amu C and 1 GeV/amu protons, respectively, compared to 250 kVp X-rays. For induction of micronuclei (MN), compared to the low LET protons, Fe and Ti are very effective inducers of damage, although C ions are similar to protons. Using a transwell insert system in which irradiated and unirradiated bystander cells share medium but are not touching each other, it was found that clonogenic survival in unirradiated bystander cells was decreased when irradiated cells were exposed to Fe ions or X-rays. The magnitude of the decrease in bystander survival was similar with both radiation types, reaching a plateau of about 80% survival at doses of about 0.5 Gy or larger.

Low-dose studies of bystander cell killing with targeted soft X rays.

The Gray Cancer Institute ultrasoft X-ray microprobe was used to quantify the bystander response of individual V79 cells exposed to a focused carbon K-shell (278 eV) X-ray beam. The ultrasoft X-ray microprobe is designed to precisely assess the biological response of individual cells irradiated in vitro with a very fine beam of low-energy photons. Characteristic CK X rays are generated by a focused beam of 10 keV electrons striking a graphite target. Circular diffraction gratings (i.e. zone plates) are then employed to focus the X-ray beam into a spot with a radius of 0.25 microm at the sample position. Using this microbeam technology, the correlation between the irradiated cells and their nonirradiated neighbors can be examined critically. The survival response of V79 cells irradiated with a CK X-ray beam was measured in the 0-2-Gy dose range. The response when all cells were irradiated was compared to that obtained when only a single cell was exposed. The cell survival data exhibit a linear-quadratic response when all cells were targeted (with evidence for hypersensitivity at low doses). When only a single cell was targeted within the population, 10% cell killing was measured. In contrast to the binary bystander behavior reported by many other investigations, the effect detected was initially dependent on dose (<200 mGy) and then reached a plateau (>200 mGy). In the low-dose region (<200 mGy), the response after irradiation of a single cell was not significantly different from that when all cells were exposed to radiation. Damaged cells were distributed uniformly over the area of the dish scanned (approximately 25 mm2). However, critical analysis of the distance of the damaged, unirradiated cells from other damaged cells revealed the presence of clusters of damaged cells produced under bystander conditions.

Biological dosimetry for epithermal neutron beams.

The radiobiological effectiveness of an epithermal neutron beam is described using cell survival as the end point. The M67 epithermal neutron beam at the Nuclear Reactor Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, that was used for clinical trials of boron neutron capture therapy was used to irradiate Chinese hamster ovary cells at seven depths in a water-filled phantom that simulated healthy tissue. No boron was added to the samples. Therefore, this experiment evaluates the biological effectiveness of the neutron and photon components, which comprise 80-95% of the dose to healthy tissue. Cell survival was dependent upon the depth in the phantom, as a result of moderation and attenuation of the epithermal neutron beam components by the overlying water. The results were compared with 250 kVp X irradiations to determine relative biological effectiveness values. Cell survival as a function of the dose delivered was lowest at the most shallow depth of 0.5 cm, and increased at depths of 1.5, 3, 4, 5.6, 6.6 and 8.1 cm. The gradual increase in cell survival with increasing depth in the phantom is due to the exponential drop of the fast-neutron intensity of the beam. These results are applicable to clinical boron neutron capture therapy Phase I/II trials in which healthy tissue toxicity was an end point.

Apoptosis induced by dithiothreitol in HL-60 cells shows early activation of caspase 3 and is independent of mitochondria.

Previous studies have shown that under certain conditions some thiol-containing compounds can cause apoptosis in a number of different cell lines. Herein, we investigated the apoptotic pathways in HL-60 cells triggered by dithiothreitol (DTT), used as a model thiol compound, and tested the hypothesis that thiols cause apoptosis via production of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) during thiol oxidation. The results show that, unlike H2O2, DTT does not induce apoptosis via a mitochondrial pathway. This is demonstrated by the absence of early cytochrome c release from mitochondria into the cytosol, the lack of mitochondrial membrane depolarization at early times, and the minor role of caspase 9 in DTT-induced apoptosis. The first caspase activity detectable in DTT-treated cells is caspase 3, which is increased significantly 1 - 2 h after the start of DTT treatment. This was shown by following the cleavage of both a natural substrate, DFF-45/ICAD, and a synthetic fluorescent substrate, z-DEVD-AFC. Cleavage of substrates of caspases 2 and 8, known as initiator caspases, does not start until 3 - 4 h after DTT exposure, well after caspase 3 has become active and at a time when apoptosis is in late stages, as shown by the occurrence of DNA fragmentation to oligonucleosomal-sized pieces. Although oxidizing DTT can produce H2O2, data presented here indicate that DTT-induced apoptosis is not mediated by production of H2O2 and occurs via a novel pathway that involves activation of caspase 3 at early stages, prior to activation of the common 'initiator' caspases 2, 8 and 9.

Coumarin-3-carboxylic acid as a detector for hydroxyl radicals generated chemically and by gamma radiation.

Coumarin-3-carboxylic acid (3-CCA) was used as a detector for hydroxyl radicals (.OH) in aqueous solution. The .OH was generated by gamma irradiation or chemically by the Cu2+-mediated oxidation of ascorbic acid (ASC). The excitation and emission spectra of 3-CCA, hydroxylated either chemically or by gamma irradiation, were nearly identical to those of an authentic 7-hydroxycoumarin-3-carboxylic acid (7-OHCCA). The pH-titration curves for the fluorescence at 450 nm (excitation at 395 nm) of 3-CCA, hydroxylated either chemically or by gamma radiation, were also identical to those of authentic 7-OHCCA (pK = 7.4). Time-resolved measurements of the fluorescence decays of radiation- or chemically hydroxylated 3-CCA, as well as those of 7-OHCCA, indicate a monoexponential fit. The fluorescence lifetime for the product of 3-CCA hydroxylation was identical to that of 7-OHCCA (approximately 4 ns). These data, together with analysis of end products by high-performance liquid chromatography, show that the major fluorescent product formed by radiation-induced or chemical hydroxylation of 3-CCA is 7-OHCCA. Fluorescence detection of 3-CCA hydroxylation allows real-time measurement of the kinetics of .OH generation. The kinetics of 3-CCA hydroxylation by gamma radiation is linear, although the kinetics of 3-CCA hydroxylation by the Cu2+-ASC reaction shows a sigmoid shape. The initial (slow) step of 3-CCA hydroxylation is sensitive to Cu2+, but the steeper (fast) step is sensitive to ASC. Analysis of the kinetics of 3-CCA hydroxylation shows a diffusion-controlled reaction with a rate constant 5.0 +/- 1.0 x 10(9) M(-1) s(-1). The scavenging of .OH by 3-CCA was approximately 14% for chemical generation with Cu2+-ASC and approximately 50% for gamma-radiation-produced .OH. The yield of 7-OHCCA under the same radiation conditions was approximately 4.4% and increased linearly with radiation dose. The 3-CCA method of detection of .OH is quantitative, sensitive, specific and therefore accurate. It has an excellent potential for use in biological systems.

Caffeine-induced apoptosis reveals a persistent lesion after treatment with bromodeoxyuridine and ultraviolet-B light.

Ultraviolet-B (UVB) light treatment of synchronized V79 Chinese hamster cells after pulse-labeling with bromodeoxyuridine (BrdUrd) reveals a marked age response for cell killing. Incubation after treatment in growth medium containing caffeine increases cell killing during the resistant portions of the cell cycle, resulting in a much less marked age response to UVB irradiation. Examination of the split-dose survival curves for BrdUrd and UVB light in the presence or absence of caffeine indicates that sensitization by caffeine is completely independent of the sparing effect of dose fractionation. Further, sensitization by caffeine is nearly complete after the first mitosis after the UVB exposure. With delayed addition of caffeine, however, nearly full sensitization can be elicited as late as two cell cycles after the treatment with BrdUrd and UVB light. Also, synchronized cells exposed to caffeine after treatment with BrdUrd and UVB in the S phase cease to incorporate radiolabeled thymidine and undergo apoptosis after the second mitosis. Thus exposure to caffeine reveals a persistent sensitivity lasting for at least two cell cycles, after the injury induced by treatment with BrdUrd and UVB.

Mechanism of production of hydroxyl radicals in the copper-catalyzed oxidation of dithiothreitol.

We have undertaken detailed studies of the mechanisms involved in the production of OH radicals during the copper-catalyzed oxidation of dithiothreitol (DTT). Most of these studies were conducted in real time, detecting .OH based on its reaction with coumarin-3-carboxylic acid to produce the fluorescent derivative 7-hydroxycoumarin-3-carboxylic acid (7-OHCCA). Studies of the kinetics of oxidizing DTT show that production of .OH occurs in two stages: an initial lag period during which there is little production of 7-OHCCA, and a second reaction phase during which there is more rapid generation of .OH. The duration of the initial reaction period depends on the concentrations of both DTT and Cu2+. During this initial stage, oxygen consumption is high, although an increasing concentration of Cu2+ decreases the oxygen consumption. The rate of production of .OH during the second phase of the reaction depends on the concentration of Cu2+, but little oxygen is consumed. A mechanism is proposed whereby a Cu2+-DTT complex is formed and catalyzes oxidation of free DTT via formation of an oxygen-containing intermediate. The second phase of the reaction begins after complete oxidation of free DTT and involves production of O2.- and H2O2 followed by generation of .OH via reduction of H2O2 by cuprous ion.

Quantitation of hydroxyl radicals produced by radiation and copper-linked oxidation of ascorbate by 2-deoxy-D-ribose method.

We have established controlled conditions for studying the reaction of chemically and radiolytically produced hydroxyl radical (.OH) with 2-deoxy-D-ribose (2-DR). Ascorbate (ASC) or dithiothreitol (DTT) and cuprous or cupric ions were used to generate the OH-radical. The OH-radical was detected using the classical method of measuring the amount of thiobarbituric acid reactive products (TBARP) formed by .OH-mediated 2-DR degradation, but using sensitive fluorescent detection of the TBARP production to quantify the OH-radical. All experiments were performed with adequate O(2) concentrations. The copper reaction with ASC consumes O(2) in a manner that is strongly dependent on copper concentration, and less dependent on ascorbate concentration. For an independent check of the Cu2+ catalyzed ASC oxidation kinetics, the decay of ASC absorbency at 265 nm, as well as the increase of H(2)O(2) absorbency at approximately 240 nm, were also monitored. These spectral changes agree well with the O(2) consumption data. TBARP production from 2-DR incubated with a Cu2+-ASC mixture or gamma-irradiated were also compared. gamma-Irradiation of 2-DR solutions shows a dose and 2-DR concentration dependent increase of TBARP generation. Other electron donors, such as DTT, are more complicated in their mechanism of OH-radical production. Incubation of 2-DR with Cu2+-DTT mixtures shows a delay (approximately 50 min) before OH-radical generation is detected. Our results suggest that the Cu2+-ASC reaction can be used to mimic the effects of ionizing radiation with respect to OH-radical generation. The good reproducibility and relative simplicity of the 2-DR method with fluorescence detection indicates its usefulness for the quantitation of the OH-radical generated radiolytically or chemically in carefully controlled model systems.

Radiation-induced apoptosis and its relationship to loss of clonogenic survival.

Ionizing radiation can be an effective inducer of apoptosis and studies of many aspects of the pathways and mechanisms involved in this apoptosis induction have been published. This review stresses two aspects: the relationship between apoptosis and loss of clonogenic ability in irradiated cells and the time course for the appearance of apoptosis after radiation exposure. Although it was initially assumed that apoptosis occurred relatively quickly (within hours) after irradiation, evidence is presented and discussed here showing that apoptosis can occur at long times after irradiation (out to 20 days) in some cell types. This late, or delayed, apoptosis occurs after the cells have divided once or several times. The impact of delayed apoptosis on loss of clonogenicity after irradiation remains unclear. It seems likely that in some cell types, e.g., fibroblasts, the occurrence of late apoptosis is minimal and may have little impact on long term cell survival of the population, but in at least one instance, with a cell line of hematopoietic origin, it appears that late apoptosis can account for all the loss of clonogenicity in irradiated cells. The role of p53 in radiation-induced apoptosis is also discussed, with data presented showing that both p53-dependent and independent pathways for radiation-induced apoptosis exist, depending on the cell type.

Role of Fenton chemistry in thiol-induced toxicity and apoptosis.

Under certain conditions, many radioprotective thiols can be toxic, causing loss of colony-forming ability in cultured mammalian cells in a biphasic fashion whereby the thiols are not toxic at high or low concentrations of the drug, but cause decreased clonogenicity at intermediate (0.2-1.0 mM) drug levels. This symposium paper summarizes our studies using dithiothreitol (DTT) as a model thiol to demonstrate the role of Fenton chemistry in thiol toxicity. The toxicity of DTT in V79 cells has several characteristics: it is dependent on the medium used during exposure of cells to the drug; the toxicity is decreased or prevented by addition of catalase exogenously, but superoxide dismutase has no effect; the toxicity is increased by addition of copper, either free or derived from ceruloplasmin in serum; and the toxicity can be modified intracellularly by altering glucose availability or pentose cycle activity. Thus the data are consistent with a mechanism whereby DTT oxidation produces H2O2 in a reaction catalyzed by metals, predominantly copper, followed by reaction of H2O2 in a metal-catalyzed Fenton reaction to produce the ultimate toxic species, .OH. Studies comparing 12 thiols have shown that the magnitude of cell killing and pattern of dependence on thiol concentration vary among the different agents, with the toxicity depending on the interplay between the rates of two reactions: thiol oxidation and the reaction between the thiol and the H2O2 produced during the thiol oxidation. The addition of other metals, e.g. Zn2+, and metal chelators, e.g. EDTA, can also alter DTT toxicity by altering the rates of thiol oxidation or the Fenton reaction. Recent studies have shown that in certain cell lines thiols can also cause apoptosis in a biphasic pattern, with little apoptosis at low or high drug concentrations but greatly increased apoptosis levels at intermediate (approximately 3 mM) thiol concentrations. There appears to be a good correlation between those thiols that cause loss of clonogenicity and those that induce apoptosis, suggesting similar mechanisms may be involved in both end points. However, thiol-induced apoptosis is not prevented by addition of exogenous catalase. These observations are discussed in relation to the possible role of Fenton chemistry in induction of apoptosis by thiols.

Role of guanosine triphosphate in ferric ion-linked Fenton chemistry.

We measured the production of reactive hydroxyl radical (OH.) by Fe2+ itself or complexed with nucleotide triphosphates or tripolyphosphate (TPP). Coumarin-3-carboxylic acid (3-CCA) reacts with the OH. produced by Fe2+, Fe3+ or Cu2+ plus ascorbate and with various iron complexes. We measured in real time the increased fluorescence of 3-CCA after hydroxylation to 7-hydroxy-coumarin-3-carboxylic acid (7-OHCCA). Phosphate-buffered solutions do not affect the yield of Fe(2+)-linked OH. as do other organic buffer solutions. Our results show that guanosine triphosphate enhances the Fe(2+)-linked production of OH.. We also tested inosine triphosphate, adenosine triphosphate and xanthine triphosphate for their capacity to produce OH. with Fe2+. Inosine triphosphate is the most effective nucleotide in the production of OH.. However, the Fe(2+)-mediated yield of OH. is greater in the presence of TPP compared to the nucleotide triphosphates. Organic buffers as well as the purine and ribose portion of nucleotides compete for OH. and decrease the yield of fluorescent 7-OHCCA. We also decreased the yield of OH. by adding guanosine to the Fe2+/TPP-generating system. Adenosine, ribose and deoxyribose also react with Fe(2+)-generated OH.. The decreased yield of 7-OHCCA occurs because the ribose and purine part of the molecule reacts with OH.. The maximal production of reactive OH., compared to all nucleotides and phosphates tested, occurs with a ratio of 2 TPP/Fe2+ complex. In conclusion, the real-time measurement of the production of fluorescent 7-OHCCA provides a convenient means for measuring chemically generated OH.. The TPP/Fe(2+)-generating mixture, in the presence of 3-CCA, can be used to study the scavenging ability of other competing molecules.

Radiation-induced apoptosis in HL60 cells: oxygen effect, relationship between apoptosis and loss of clonogenicity, and dependence of time to apoptosis on radiation dose.

Apoptosis in HL60 human leukemia cells irradiated in vitro was quantified using a DNA fragmentation assay. Dose-response curves for induction of apoptosis in HL60 cells 6 h after irradiation with 280 kVp X rays in air and hypoxia give an oxygen enhancement ratio (OER) of 2.7. This is similar to the OER of 2.8 obtained from survival curves for HL60 cells using a soft agar clonogenic assay. However, HL60 cells are much more sensitive to radiation-induced loss of clonogenicity than to induction of apoptosis at 6 h. For example, 12 Gy in air reduces the surviving fraction to about 0.002 in a clonogenic assay, but 12 Gy does not cause any significant increase in the percentage of apoptosis-like DNA fragmentation 6 h after irradiation compared to unirradiated controls. However, if apoptosis is assayed 2-4 days after irradiation, the HL60 cells show greater sensitivity, with 5 Gy in air causing 45-50% apoptosis at 3 days. When apoptosis is measured 3 days after irradiation, the OER is similar to that obtained for survival and for apoptosis at 6 h. Although the HL60 cells exhibit radiation-induced apoptosis if one waits 2-4 days after low doses of radiation, rather than just 6 h, to conduct the assay, the amount of cells undergoing apoptosis is still not sufficient to account for all the loss of clonogenicity seen when HL60 cells are exposed to ionizing radiation.

Mechanisms for the oxygen radical-mediated toxicity of various thiol-containing compounds in cultured mammalian cells.

When Chinese hamster V79 cells are exposed to various thiol compounds in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS), some compounds cause toxicity (loss of colony formation), although the dependence on drug concentration and the magnitude of the cell killing vary between the different thiols. For example: dithiothreitol (DTT) and WR-1065 cause a biphasic toxicity whereby cell killing occurs at about 0.2 to 1.0 mM thiol, but is not seen at higher or lower drug concentrations; N-acetylcysteine (NAC) is toxic only at concentrations > or = 2 mM and shows no biphasic pattern; and glutathione (GSH) and penicillamine are only minimally toxic at all concentrations. The effect of the addition of 1 microM Cu2+ to the thiol also depends on the particular thiol: e.g., Cu2+ increases cell killing in the biphasic pattern with WR-1065; it increases the toxicity of NAC only at high thiol concentrations; and it elicits a slight toxicity in the biphasic pattern by GSH and penicillamine. In all cases tested, if the thiol is toxic, the cell killing can be decreased or prevented by addition of catalase, consistent with the hypothesis that the toxicity is mediated through H2O2 produced during the thiol oxidation. However, when the oxidation rates of the various thiols in PBS without and with Cu2+ were measured, the data did not show a simple correlation between the toxicity of the various thiols and their oxidation rates. The rate of the reaction of the various thiols with H2O2 was also determined and showed a better, but still not good, correlation with toxicity. However, cell killing by the various thiols correlated better with the ratio between the half-lives for thiol oxidation and reaction of thiol with H2O2 than with either reaction rate alone. This suggests that the toxicity pattern and magnitude of cell killing in V79 cells by various thiols depend on the interplay between the rate of thiol oxidation and the rate of reaction between the thiol and the H2O2 produced in the thiol oxidation.

Role of the pentose cycle in oxygen radical-mediated toxicity of the thiol-containing radioprotector dithiothreitol in mammalian cells.

We have shown previously that the thiol-containing radioprotector dithiothreitol (DTT) kills V79 cells in a manner that is dependent on both the concentration of DTT and the medium. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that DTT toxicity is caused by the copper-catalyzed oxidation of DTT, forming H2O2, which in turn produces .OH, the ultimate toxic species, via the metal-catalyzed Fenton reaction. Because it is known that the pentose cycle plays a role in the ability of cells to deal with oxidative stress, the hypothesis that the pentose cycle is involved in the response of cells to DTT is tested in this paper. The results show that toxicity of both DTT and H2O2 in V79 cells is greater in cells exposed to the drugs in medium lacking glucose than in cells in medium containing glucose. Addition of glucose to medium or buffer lacking it decreases DTT- and H2O2-induced cell killing. Studies using cells deficient in glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD), the rate-limiting enzyme of the pentose cycle, show that cells of the mutant cell lines (E16 and E48) are more sensitive to cell killing by both DTT and H2O2 than are the parental CHO K1D cells when exposed to the drugs in medium containing glucose. However, toxicity does not differ significantly among the three cell lines when they are exposed to DTT or H2O2 in phosphate-buffered saline that lacks glucose. Measurements of pentose cycle activity show that the pentose cycle in K1D cells is stimulated by DTT, with the pattern and drug concentration dependence of the stimulation being similar to that for cell killing. However, the pentose cycle is not stimulated by DTT in G6PD-deficient cell lines. The data are consistent with the hypothesis that the pentose cycle is one of the cellular pathways that mediates the oxidative stress imposed by DTT or H2O2.

Role of copper in the oxygen radical-mediated toxicity of the thiol-containing radioprotector dithiothreitol in mammalian cells.

The thiol radioprotector dithiothreitol (DTT) causes biphasic toxicity in V79 cells: exposure to DTT causes loss of clonogenic cell survival at intermediate concentrations of the drug, but is not toxic at lower (< 0.05 mM) or higher (> 2.0 mM) concentrations. Toxicity depends on the medium in which cells are exposed to DTT. Cell killing is less when cells are exposed to DTT in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) than when in complete, serum-containing medium, and there is no cell killing at any drug concentration when cells are in serum-free medium. When cells are exposed to DTT in PBS containing 10% fetal calf serum (FCS) or 10% dialyzed FCS, cell killing is increased compared to the response in PBS alone, suggesting that some component(s) of serum is involved in DTT toxicity. Addition of micromolar quantities of copper as either free Cu2+ or ceruloplasmin to serum-free medium increases the toxicity of DTT, but addition of free iron or transferrin has no effect. H2O2 is produced during DTT oxidation and appears to be involved in the toxicity of DTT, because toxicity can be prevented by catalase. H2O2 is also toxic to V79 cells in a medium-dependent fashion, but the toxicity is not influenced by addition of copper, ceruloplasmin, iron or transferrin. The rate of DTT oxidation is also medium-dependent and is increased by copper or ceruloplasmin, but not by iron or transferrin. The data are consistent with the hypothesis that the toxicity of DTT is caused by the copper-catalyzed oxidation of DTT, forming H2O2 which, in turn, produces .OH, the ultimate toxic agent, via the Fenton reaction.