Thermal radiosensitization in radiation-sensitive mutant mouse leukemic cells

This study investigated thermal, radiation, and combined thermal radiation sensitization of mouse leukemic cells, L5178Y, and radiation-sensitive mutant cells, LX830. Radiation sensitivity (D0) values were 0.41 Gy for LX830 and 1.39 Gy for L5178Y, with the ratio of D0 values in LX830 to in L5178Y being 3.4. Thus, LX830 was more radiosensitive than L5178Y. LX830 showed no shouldered survival curves. Although sublethal damage (SLD) repair was seen to the almost same degree in both LX830 and L5178Y, potential lethal damage (PLD) repair was scarcely observed in LX830. Both cell lines were similar in thermal sensitivity (T0). Eosine staining suggested that cell killing due to hyperthermia had occurred in the interphase in both LX830 and L5178Y. L5178Y showed thermal sensitivity low in the G1 phase and high in the S phase; on the contrary, LX830 showed it high in the G1 phase and low in the S phase. Thermal radiosensitization was similar in both cell lines, although there was a great difference in radiation sensitivity between the cell lines. The difference in radiation sensitivity (D0) between L5178Y and LX830 became small when radiation was given at the time of the maximum thermal resistance. This seemed to contribute to a decrease in radiation sensitivity in LX830. It can be concluded that thermal radiosensitization depends on thermal sensitivity and that radiation sensitivity decreases in radiation-sensitive cells when exposed to irradiation at the time of thermal resistance. (N.K.)