Restoration of Radiation-Induced Damage Related to the Cell Cycle

A restorative effect of DNA and its precursors in asynchronously growing L-cells after X-irradiation had previously been found. The fact that the precursors were active only if all four of them were added in the form of an equimolar solution, as well as some other d ata, indicated that such treatment might support certain repair processes in the damaged metabolism of nucleic acids. To obtain more information on this problem, synchronized populations of L-cells were irradiated at different stages of the cell cycle with 500 R of X-rays and then treated with either highly polymerized DNA or with nucleotides or nucleosides. The survival of the treated and untreated cells was then calculated and compared. It was found that the cells were over ten times more sensitive in the DNA-synthetic (S) period than in the presynthetic (G1) period. The restorative effect of all three materials was related to the S period. The highly polymerized DNA and the deoxytibonucleosides were much more effective than the deoxyribonucleotides. The results indicate that the influence of small molecules and the role they play in the damaged metabolism of nucleic acids could be of considerable importance in the mechanism of the restorative effect produced by nucleic-acid treatment. (author)