Anomalous dose-response characteristics induced by caffeine in ultraviolet-irradiated V79-79 Chinese hamster cells

Cultured Chinese hamster cell line V79-79 exhibited an increase in survival with increasing UV fluence after a sharp decrease when exposed to 2.5 mM caffeine for 44 h after far-UV irradiation resulting in an anomalous maximum in the survival curve. No survival maximum was evident when either 0 or 1 mM caffeine is administered under the same conditions. The UV survival curve for 2.5 mM caffeine crossed the corresponding 1 mM curve and apparently became asymptotic to the 0 mM curve as UV fluence was increased. Chinese hamster cell lines V79-753B (related to V79-79 by derivation from the same parental line) and M3-1F3 (unrelated) exhibited only potentiation of post-UV lethality by the same concentration of caffeine and had no caffeine-induced anomalies in their survival curves. Xanthine, used alone or in combination with caffeine, only potentiated a slight amount of lethality and appeared not to be a major causative factor of the anomaly. (author)