Cytotoxicity of 125I decay in the DNA double strand break repair deficient mutant cell line, xrs-5

The survival of parental Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) K1 cells and the DNA double strand break (DSB) repair deficient mutant, xrs-5 was determined after accumulation of 125I decays. Both CHO and xrs-5 cells were extremely sensitive to accumulated 125I decays. The D0 values for CHO and xrs-5 cells were 40 and approximately 7 decays per cell, respectively. The difference in cell survival between CHO and xrs-5 cells was not due to differences in overall 125IUdR incorporation, differences in labelling index (LI) or differences in plating efficiency (PE). Relative biological effectiveness (RBE) values calculated relative to 137Cs gamma radiation survival values (D0 and D10) were higher in xrs-5 cells compared with CHO cells. Although both CHO and xrs-5 cells have high RBE values that correspond to a high sensitivity of CHO and xrs-5 cells to 125I decay. The higher RBE observed for xrs-5 cells in combination with the known repair defect in xrs-5 cells support the idea that unrepaired DNA double strand breaks are lethal to the cell.