Cellular glutathione content and K values. II.

After exposure to radiation in the presence of different oxygen concentrations, the OER values were determined for human fibroblasts cell strains with differing intrinsic GSH content, and cells depleted of GSH to different extent by treatment with BSO. The yield of DNA single-strand breaks was used as the measure of radiosensitivity. The K values were found to be related specifically to the GSH concentration in the cell nuclei. A good agreement was found between the experimental observations and the prediction of a variant of the competition model in which a second type of damage, not influenced by oxygen, was included.