Glucose analogues alter the response of CHO-KI cells to gamma irradiation

Pretreatment of CHO-KI cells with 2-deoxy-D-glucose or L-glucose, two glucose analogues, reduces their survival if subsequently exposed to 60Co irradiation. The reduction in survival is constant irrespective of the time the cells are in contact with the analogues before irradiation and occurred even when cells were irradiated 6 hours after plating, suggesting that cell cycle effects are probably not involved. Interestingly, split-dose recovery was not affected to the expected degree, despite a reduction in the extrapolation number of the primary curve. It is suggested that interference with energy production from glucose is responsible for the reduced capacity of cells to survive the irradiation.