Purpose: Lepidopteran insect cells are known to exhibit very high radioresistance. Although very effective DNA excision-repair has been proposed as a contributing factor, a detailed understanding of insect cell radiation responses has not yet been obtained. Therefore, the study was carried out to understand the in vitro radiation responses of Sf9 lepidopteran cells.

Materials and methods: Exponentially growing asynchronous Sf9 cells (derived from ovaries of Spodoptera frugiperda) were exposed to gamma-radiation doses of 2-200 Gy. Cell survival, growth inhibition, cell cycle progression delay, alterations in cell morphology as well as induction of DNA damage, micronuclei and apoptosis were studied at various post-irradiation time intervals.

Results: Biphasic survival response curves were obtained with D0 rising from 20 Gy (at doses < or = 60 Gy) to 85 Gy (between 60 and 200 Gy), corroborating earlier reports on lepidopteran cells. An additional downward deviation at 2 Gy indicated a hypersensitive response. Dose-dependent growth inhibition with a transient G2 delay starting 12 h and extending up to 48-96 h was observed at doses of 10-200 Gy, while a brief G1/S transition delay was observed only at higher doses (> or = 100 Gy). Significant DNA damage was detected only at 20 Gy and higher doses, in contrast with human cells that showed similar damage at 2 Gy. Interestingly, micronuclei were not induced at any of the doses tested, although spontaneous micronucleation was evident in <1% of cells. Lack of micronucleus induction even at doses that induced significant DNA damage and a transient G2 block (20-50 Gy) strongly indicated a role of holocentric lepidopteran chromosomes. Apoptosis was detected only in a small proportion of cells (3%) exposed to 200 Gy, and cell/nucleus size and granularity increased by 72-96 h post-irradiation in a dose-dependent manner. Sf9 nucleoids extracted at 2 M NaCl showed higher compactness than the nucleoids prepared from human cells.

Conclusions: It is clearly shown that lepidopteran cells are highly resistant to the induction of DNA damage and micronuclei, and display very low induction of apoptosis at doses up to 200 Gy. While the lack of micronucleus induction seems to be primarily due to the holocentric nature of their chromosomes, certain unique signalling pathways might be responsible for the low induction of apoptosis. Factors causing protection of Sf9 cellular DNA from radiation-induced damage are presently being investigated.