Adaptation-like response to the chemical induction of sister chromatid exchanges in human lymphocytes

✍ Scribed by K. Morimoto; M. Sato-Mizuno; A. Koizumi

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1986
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 528 KB
• Volume: 73
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0340-6717
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00292670

✦ Synopsis

Experiments have been performed to determine whether human lymphocytes in primary cultures can show an "adaptive" response to the induction of cellular lesions (manifested as a production of sister chromatid exchanges, SCEs) as previously found in bacteria and established human and mammalian cell lines. Human lymphocytes were pretreated with various subtoxic concentrations (5-50 ng/ml) of N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG) once every 6h for 72 h, and subsequently challenged by a high dose (4 micrograms/ml) of MNNG. The lymphocytes in MNNG-challenged cultures had the lowest frequency of SCEs when pretreated with 10 ng/ml MNNG. Further cross-resistance study revealed that repeated pretreatments of lymphocytes with 10 ng/ml MNNG for 72 h can render the cells resistant to the induction of SCEs by the following challenge with a high dose of MNNG, but not of mitomycin C or ethyl nitrosourea. The data also suggest variations in the degree of the adaptation-like response among individuals.