Irradiation effect on the apoptosis induction in the human cancer cell lines and the gingival fibroblast

The radiation-induced apoptosis was studied for two human cancer cell lines (KB cells, RPMI 2650 cells) and the human gingival fibroblast cell line (HGF-1 cells). The single irradiation of 2, 10, 20 Gy was done with 241.5 cGy/min dose rate using the 137 Cs MK cell irradiator. The cell were stained with propidium iodide and examined under the fluoro-microscope and assayed with the flow cytometry a day after irradiation. Also, the LDH assay was done to determine the amount of necrotic cells. The obtained results were as follows : 1. On the fluoro-microscope, many fragmented nuclei were detected in the KB, RPMI 2650, and HGF-1 cells after irradiation. 2. On the DNA content histogram obtained from the flow cytometry, the percentages of the pre-G1 peak of the control and 2, 10 and 20 Gy irradiation group were 4.5, 55.0, 52.3, and 66.6% on KB cells, 2.7, 3.3, 31.8, and 32.6% on RPMI 2650 cells and 2.8, 21.8, 30.4, and 40.2% on HGF-1 cells respectively. 3. The number of G1-stage cells was abruptly decreased after 2 Gy irradiation on KB cells and 10 Gy irradiation on RPMI 2650 cells, But there was a slight decrease without regard to irradiation dose on HGF-1 cells. 4. There was no significantly different absorbance in extracellular LDH assay along the experimental cell lines