Ultraviolet-light exposure induces a heritable sensitivity to the induction of SCE by mitomycin-C

The dose-response relationship for mitomycin-C (MMC)-induced sister-chromatid exchange (SCE) has been determined in the progeny of Chinese hamster lung fibroblasts (V79) exposed to 5.0 J/m2 ultraviolet light-C (UVC, 254 nm) and in the progeny of non-UVC-irradiated controls. Progeny of UVC-irradiated cultures exhibited sensitivity to MMC-induced SCE at doses of MMC that were not detectably lethal. This sensitivity was manifest as an increase in SCE per cell in a large proportion of the cells derived from UVC-exposed cultures and thus appears not to result from the expression of a rare event such as mutation.