1
Groesser, T., Cooper, B. and Rydberg, B. Lack of Bystander Effects From High LET Radiation ForEarly Cytogenetic Endpoints. Radiat. Res.The aim of this work was to study radiation induced bystander effects for early cytogenetic endpoints in various cell lines using the medium transfer technique after high and low LET radiation. Cells were exposed to 20MeV/amu Nitrogen ions, 968 MeV/amu Iron ions or 575 MeV/amu Iron ions followed by transfer of the conditioned medium from the irradiated cells to unirradiated test cells. The effects studied included DNA double-strand break induction, γ-H2AX foci formation, induction of chromatid breaks in prematurely condensed chromosomes, and micronuclei formation using DNA repair proficient and deficient hamster and human cell lines (xrs6, V79, SW48, MO59K and MO59J). Cell survival was also measured in SW48 bystander cells using X-rays. Although it was possible to occasionally detect an increase in chromatid break levels using Nitrogen ions and seeing a higher number of γ-H2AX foci formation using Nitrogen and Iron ions in xrs6 bystander cells in single experiments, the results were not reproducible. After pooling all the data, we could not verify a significant bystander effect for any these endpoints. Also, we did not detect a significant bystander effect for DSB induction or micronuclei formation in these cell lines or for clonogenic survival in SW48 cells.The data suggest that DNA damage and cytogenetic changes are not induced in bystander cells. In contrast, literature data show pronounced bystander effects in a variety of cell lines, including clonogenic survival in SW48 cells and induction of chromatid breaks and micronuclei in hamster cells. To reconcile these conflicting data, it seems possible that the epigenetic status of the specific cell line or the precise culture conditions and medium supplements, such as serum, might be critical for inducing bystander effects.
2
INTRODUCTIONFor decades it has been a central dogma in radiation biology that the energy from ionizing radiation must be deposited in the cell nucleus of the affected cell or at least in the cell's cytoplasm to induce a radiation response.However, in the last years data have provided evidence that cells that are not hit directly by ionizing radiation are also influenced by damaged neighboring cells. This now well accepted phenomenon, called the bystander effect, has been reported in various cell types and biological endpoints such as sister chromatid exchange (1, 2), clonogenic survival (3, 4), micronucleus formation (5-10), chromatin damage (11), chromosome aberrations (12), foci formation (5), apoptosis (13) etc (for an overview see reviews (14-21) and summaries (22,23)). Two major mechanisms are described in the literature. First a transfer of factors through gap junctions (6) and second a medium mediated transport of the bystander factors independent of cell-cell contact (3,24). However, the factors that are involved in the transmission of the effects are still unknown. Due to the fact that the bystan...