Analysis of medium-mediated bystander effects induced by carbon-ion irradiation between human lung normal and cancer cells

Ikeda, Hiroko; Yokota, Yuichiro; Funayama, Tomoo; Kanai, Tatsuaki*; Nakano, Takashi*; Kobayashi, Yasuhiko

In this study, human lung normal fibroblasts WI-38 and human lung cancer cells H1299/wt were used. Cells were irradiated with carbon-ion broad beams, then survival rates of bystander cells after co-culture with irradiated cells were measured using colony assay. The survival rates of non-irradiated bystander cancer cells co-cultured with 0.13 Gy irradiated normal cells increased after 6-hours co-culture. On the other hand, the bystander cells co-cultured with 0.5 Gy irradiated normal cells showed decreased survival rates. These results indicated that the bystander responses of the cancer cells changes according to the irradiation dose on the normal cells. In addition, the survival rates of bystander cancer cells showed a tendency to increase by the addition of Carboxy-PTIO to the co-culture medium, when co-cultured with 0.5 Gy irradiated normal cells. From these results, reduction of survival rates is likely to be caused by NO radical as a mediator in bystander effects.