Effects of continuous exposure to 239Pu-alpha rays on Co631 cells

Exposure of Co631 cells to 239Pu-citrate leads to continuous irradiation and results in increasing cell death which depends on dose and incubation time of the metal. The D37 is calculated to be 0.13 Gy. Plutonium-239 induces the amplification of the integrated SV40 sequences of the Co631 cells. Other cellular genes such as the alpha-actin gene were not amplified, indicating that the SV40-gene amplification is a selective process. Southern blot analysis of genomic DNA shows that not all S40 sequences are equally amplified. Excised sequences of the SV40 genome only appear after an exposure time of 4 days.