Absence of radioadaptive responses in four cell-lines in vitro as determined by colony formation assay

The purpose of this study was to investigate radioadaptive response in 4 cell-lines under identical conditions using a colony assay. First, 4 cell-lines (V79, HeLa S3, EMT6 and SCCVII) were exposed to 8 Gy at various intervals after pretreatment with an adapting dose of 50 mGy or without it. Second, V79 cells were exposed to 8 Gy at 4.5 hrs after an adapting dose of 0 to 400 mGy. Third, V79 cells were exposed to 2, 4 or 6 Gy at 6 hrs after an adapting dose of 0 or 50 mGy. In the last experiment, an adapting dose was given either immediately after cell plating or 24 hrs later. Cell survival was assessed by a standard colony assay. Adaptive response was not observed in any of the 4 lines tested. In V79 cells, no adaptive response was seen even by changing the adapting dose, challenging dose, and timing of adapting radiation after cell plating. Although radioadaptive response has been reported for the V79 cell-line, we could not reproduce the result. We also failed to demonstrate the phenomenon in the other 3 tumor cell-lines in culture.