Variation in radiation-induced apoptosis in ataxia telangiectasia lymphoblastoid cell lines

Purpose: To investigate and compare the ability of Epstein-Barr virus-transformed lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCL) from healthy individuals (normals) and ataxia telangiectasia (A-T) patients to undergo apoptosis after exposure to ionizing radiation. Materials and methods: Four normal and eight A-T LCL were exposed to doses of up to 20 Gy ionizing radiation. Apoptosis induction was studied 24 h after irradiation using three different methods: measurement of caspase-3 activity, PARP-1 cleavage estimation of the sub-G(1) cell fraction. Results: Of the eight A-T LCL tested, all harbouring truncating ATM mutations, five had a higher level of spontaneous apoptosis than the normal LCL as assessed by the sub-G(1) cell fraction. Four of the eight A-T LCLs showed a similar level of radiation-induced apoptosis after exposure to 5 Gy as the normal LCL. The other four A-T LCL showed a greater radiation-induced apoptotic response, as assessed by at least one of the three techniques. Conclusions: LCL from A-T patients can undergo ionizing radiation-induced apoptosis in spite of a defect in ATM-p53-dependent signalling pathways. However, the apoptotic response is characterized by a large degree of variability between the A-T cell lines, the causes of which remain to be established.