[The effects of hematin and Mössbauer gamma radiation in cellular inactivation]

In the present work we report the results of an investigation on cultures of bone marrow mononuclear cells collected from normal donors and patients with chronic myelogenous leukaemia and cultures of the human osteosarcoma cell line "MG-63" and the human osteoblastic cell line "HOBIT". We have examined the combined effects of hematin and 14.4 KeV gamma-radiation from a Mössbauer source. Growth stimulation has been observed when hematin is added to normal cultures, while growth inhibition is observed when hematin is added to tumor cultures. Different degrees of growth inhibition were observed in both cultures when hematin alone and hematin plus gamma-rays were administered to the cultures. No significant effect could be attributed to irradiation alone, while hematin plus irradiations show a large inhibition that expected for pure additive effects.