Cytogenetic analysis of malignant transformants of human bronchial epithelial cells BEP2D generated by α-particles exposure

Objective: To analyze the cytogenetic changes in malignant transformants of human bronchial epithelial cell line (BEP2D) generated by α-particles exposure. Methods: Tumor cell lines were derived from nude mice bearing malignant transformed cells generated from cells of passage 35 of 1.5 Gy α-particles-irradiated BEP2D cells. G-banding patterns of chromosomes was used to analyze the karyotypes. Results: Five individual malignant transformed cell lines were analyzed. Deletions of one copy of chr13 and chrY, and an unidentified fragment attached to the long arms of chr2 and chr12 respectively (chr2q+, chr12q+) were observed in all the malignant transformed cell lines. The proportion of polyploid of BERP35T-2 and BERP35T-4 cells was about 40% and was higher than that of PEB2D cells (5%). Conclusions: The process of cellular malignant transformation induced by α-particles exposure could involve some characteristic cytogenetic changes