Radiation-enhanced differentiation of erythroid progenitor cells and its relation to reproductive cell death

Terminally differentiated cells usually do not divide and are, thus, reproductively dead. To elucidate the significance of radiation-enhanced differentiation to reproductive cell death, murine erythroid progenitor cells were gamma-irradiated in plasma clot cultures and the development of haemoglobinized clones was studied thereafter. If irradiation occurred when the cells had resumed proliferation, the total numbers of haemoglobinized clones and, in parallel, the numbers of newly haemoglobinized clones were elevated above control levels 6-24 h after 10-30 Gy and 24-48 h after 1 Gy respectively. Thereafter, clone numbers decreased below controls. This decrease was faster with the newly haemoglobinized clones, indicating that both the accumulation of haemoglobinized clones and fast exhaustion of the pool of more primitive precursors in the cultures are due to accelerated differentiation. The haemoglobinized clones appearing after irradiation were reduced in size without indication of direct cell death. We conclude that the reproductive cell death occurring in our system is due to enhancement of differentiation. Enhancement of differentiation is expressed by omission of cell cycles normally passed through by the cell progeny before terminal differentiation is reached. Dependence of differentiation enhancement on the presence of cycling cells at the time of irradiation indicates involvement of growth of essential cytoplasmic constituents during mitotic delay as observed in other cell systems.