Mutagenic adaptive response to high-LET radiation in human lymphoblastoid cells exposed to low doses of heavy-ion radiation

Adaptive response (AR) and bystander effect are two important phenomena involved in biological responses to low doses of ionizing radiation (IR). Furthermore, there is a strong interest in better understanding the biological effects of high-LET radiation. We previously demonstrated the ability of low doses of X-rays to induce an AR to challenging heavy-ion radiation [8]. In this study, we assessed in vitro the ability of priming low doses (0.01 Gy) of heavy-ion radiation to induce a similar AR to a subsequent challenging dose (1–4 Gy) of high-LET IR (carbon-ion: 20 and 40 keV/μm, neon-ion: 150 keV/μm) in TK6, AHH-1 and NH32 cells. Our results showed that low doses of high-LET radiation can induce an AR characterized by lower mutation frequencies at hypoxanthine–guanine phosphoribosyl transferase locus and faster DNA repair kinetics, in cells expressing p53.