Transmission of radiation-induced rearrangements through cell divisions.

A BrdU incorporation technique associated with heat denaturation, acridine orange staining and UV irradiation, was applied to G0-irradiated lymphocyte cultures. This made it possible both to obtain an R-banding, and to estimate the number of divisions undergone by each cell in mitosis irradiation. Cell survival and slowing down of the cell cycle could be distinguished. The frequency of various types of rearrangements, and their association was studied at each cell division. It is shown that the loss of cells carrying chromosomal rearrangements is determined by several parameters such as the presence of dicentric or multicentric chromosomes and above all the association of several rearrangements in the same cell.