PURPOSE
A sensitive predictive assay is necessary to determine the total radiation dose according to sensitivity of individual cancer cell lines. This study is performed to determine whether the radiation sensitivity is correlated with the changes in telomerase activity after irradiation.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Two colorectal cancer cell lines with different radiation sensitivity were used. In order to confirm the difference in radiation sensitivity, we used a calorimetric assay. Telomerase activities were measured using the PCR-based telomeric repeat amplification protocol (TRAP).
RESULTS
We confirmed the difference in radiation sensitivity between NCI-H630 and NCI-H716.
Survival fractions at 2 Gy were 0.836 for NCI-H630 and 0.317 for NCI-H716. Telomerase activity increased after irradiation with NCI-H630, which was more resistant to radiation, whereas telomerase activity decreased with NCI-H730. But dose-dependent change of telomerase activity was not confirmed.
CONCLUSION
Our results suggested that telomerase activity change after irradiation could be used as a predictive assay for radiation response. Further studies with different cell lines and tumor tissues are necessary.