Aim: Investigation of the bystander effect in Chinese Hamster Ovary cells (CHO-K1) co-cultured with cells irradiated in the dose range of 0.1-4 Gy of high LET 12C ions and X-rays.
Background: The radiobiological effects of charged heavy particles on a cellular or molecular level are of fundamental importance in the field of biomedical applications, especially in hadron therapy and space radiation biology.
Materials and methods: A heavy ion 12C beam from the Heavy Ion Laboratory of the University of Warsaw (HIL) was used to irradiate CHO-K1 cells. Cells were seeded in Petri dishes specially designed for irradiation purposes. Immediately after irradiation, cells were transferred into transwell culture insert dishes to enable co-culture of irradiated and non-irradiated cells. Cells from the membrane and well shared the medium but could not touch each other. To study bystander effects, a clonogenic survival assay was performed.
Results: The survival fraction of cells co-cultured with cells irradiated with 12C ions and X-rays was not reduced.
Conclusions: The bystander effect was not observed in these studies.
Keywords: 12C-beam; Bystander effect; CHO-K1 cells; Clonogenic survival assay.