Cytogenetic effects of tritium incorporated into DNA of human lymphocytes

In the reported in vitro experiments the numbers of chromosomal aberrations (CA) in correlation to the physical dose as assessed by determining the specific radioactivity of DNA have been followed in vitro human lymphocytes from adult donors. Lymphocytes from healthy adult donors of age from 20 to 59 of both sexes (24 males and 20 females) were isolated from blood by centrifugation. After washing the cells were irradiated from tritium incorporated during in vitro incubation in phytohemagglutinin containing medium with tritium labelled thymidine. Slides for standard CA counting have been done from every sample 48 hours after the begin cultivation. The CA were counted in at least 200 metaphases on each slide. Parallel samples of lymphocytes served for preparation smears for autoradiography to determine the labeling index. Other parallel samples were used for the determination of tritium concentration in DNA by the diphenylamine method, as well as determination of the specific radioactivity in lymphocyte DNA by scintillation counting. The dose absorbed in DNA was estimated using the conversion factor implicating that 37 kBq of tritium uniformly distributed per gram of tissue of unit density delivers a dose rate of 121.4 miGy/hour. The contamination of cells by precursors of nucleic acids - like tritiated thymidine - causes an uneven distribution of doses in the cell population. A proportion of the population of cells remains unlabelled. The dose-response curve is flat showing signs of loss of heavily damaged cells and signs of repair of damage. Both these signs are based on the nature of biological processes which lead to internal contamination of cells and to expression of effects in terms of numbers of CA. (J.K.) 5 figs., 4 refs