The Effect of Caffeine on X-Ray Repair of Radioresistant HeLa Cells

Abstract

The contribution of caffeine-modifiable repair process to the radio sensitivity of a radioresistant HeLa strain (RC-355) has been investigated in comparison with control HeLa strain (CC-24). Both the final slope and the shoulder of X-ray survival curve for log-phase cells were affected by caffeine posttreatment. When the treatment with 10 mM caffeine delayed, an increase in survival was observed with increasing interval between irradiation and the treatment. During first several hours of the repair interval, the steepness of the final slope of survival curve decreased rapidly, and rate of the decrease was found to be higher in RC-355 than in CC-24 cells. Longer time (24 hours or more) before the initiation of caffeine treatment was required for the complete recovery of the shoulder. When the cells were incubated in plateau-phase after irradiation, an appreciable increase in survival was observed in comparison with when plated immediately following X-ray. The increase was found to be greater for RC-355 than for CC-24. The results suggest that the radioresistant RC-355 cells repaired more X-ray-induced PLD than CC-24 cells did.