Oligodendrocyte response to ionizing radiation

Cell culture techniques are widely used to evaluate radiation response in rapidly proliferating cells. Quantitative cell-survival curve analysis has been developed toward this end to study clonogen survival in selected transformed 'immortal' cell lines typically derived from mammalian malignant tissue. For example, the radiation-response of glioma-derived cell clones has been studied extensively. However, the metabolic properties of transformed cerebral cells growing in vitro cannot be extrapolated readily to normal cerebral cells. Transformed cells generally lack the distinguishing metabolic characteristics of normal differentiated cells and they typically manifest a markedly different response to irradiation. Moreover, mammalian brain tissue is highly structured with a complex cellular hierarchy, and it exhibits only limited proliferative potential. Therefore, a satisfactory in vitro model for evaluation of brain irradiation cannot rely solely on standard cell culture techniques. This report examines the early reaction of the oligodendrocyte population and the myelination process to radiation injury in mammalian brain in vitro. (author). 9 refs., 1 fig