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Using Computerized Video Time Lapse for Quantifying Cell Death of X-irradiated Rat Embryo Cells Transfected with c-myc or c-Ha-ras¹

Radiation Oncology Research Laboratory, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94103-0806 [H. B. F., C. A. V., N. A., W. C. D.]; and Department of Medical Physics, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York 10021 [C. C. L.]

Rat embryo fibroblasts that had been transfected with the c-myc or c-Ha-ras oncogene were X-irradiated, after which individual cells and their progeny were followed in multiple fields for 5–6 days by computerized video time lapse microscopy to quantify the lethal events that resulted in loss of clonogenic survival. The loss of clonogenic survival of X-irradiated (9.5 or 2.5 Gy) REC:myc cells was attributed almost entirely to the cells dying by apoptosis, with almost all of the apoptosis occurring after the progeny had divided from one to four times. In contrast, the loss of clonogenic survival of X-irradiated REC:ras cells was attributed to two processes. After 9.5 Gy, 60% of the nonclonogenic cells died by apoptosis (with a very small amount of necrosis), and the other 40% underwent a senescent-type process in which some of the cells and their progeny stopped dividing but remained as viable cells throughout 140 h of observation. Both processes usually occurred after the cells had divided and continued to occur in the cells’ progeny for up to five divisions after irradiation. Furthermore, the duration of the apoptotic process was shorter for REC:myc cells (0.5–1 h) than for REC:ras cells (4–5 h).

By using computerized video time lapse to follow individual cells, we were able to determine the mode of cell death. This cannot be determined by conventional clonogenic survival experiments. Also, only by following the individual cells and their progeny can the true amount of apoptosis be determined. The cumulative percentage of apoptosis scored in whole populations, without distinguishing between the progeny of individually irradiated cells, does not reflect the true amount of apoptosis that occurs in cells that undergo postmitotic apoptosis after irradiation. Scoring cell death in whole populations of cells gives erroneous results because both clonogenic and nonclonogenic cells are dividing as nonclonogenic cells are apoptosing or senescing over a period of many days. For example, after 9.5 Gy, which causes reproductive cell death in 99% of both types of cells, the cumulative percentage of the cells scored as dead in the whole population at 60- 80 h after irradiation, when the maximum amount of cumulative apoptosis occurred, was 60% for REC:myc cells, compared with only 40% for REC:ras cells.

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