Repair of Potentially Lethal Damage in Unfed Plateau Phase Cultures of Ehrlich Ascites Tumour Cells

Summary

Monolayer cultures of EAT cells when plated immediately after irradiation show a decrease in survival as they ‘age’ in the plateau phase of growth. This decrease, which is manifest as a diminution of the shoulder width of the survival curve down to values approaching zero, is reversible if the cells are kept in their growth medium for some hours after irradiation before trypsinization and plating. Survival curves obtained by this holding procedure are similar in shape to those shown by exponentially growing or early plateau phase cells. We interpret this effect in terms of repair of potentially lethal damage which occurs after immediate plating in young cultures but only declared during plating in cultures which have ‘aged’ in the plateau phase. The kinetics of this repair and the effects caused by the addition of serum after irradiation in the cultures have been studied.