MODIFICATION OF THE TUMOR/INDUCED BYSTANDER EFFECT BY IRRADIATION UNDER COCULTIVATION OF LYMPHOCYTES FROM PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC LYMPHOCYTIC LEUKEMIA AND LYMPHOCYTES FROM HEALTHY DONORS

OBJECTIVE

Study the tumor-induced bystander effect of blood cells from chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)patients on non-transformed bystander cells (peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) of conditionally healthy individ-uals) and the possibility of its modification after the impact of ionizing radiation.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We carried out cocultivation and separate cultivation of blood samples from conditionallyhealthy volunteers and patients with CLL according to our technique. Using the Comet assay, the relative level ofDNA damage was evaluated.

RESULTS

A statistically significant increase (р < 0.001) in the level of DNA damage in PBL culture of conditionallyhealthy individuals after co-cultivation with malignant cells of CLL patients was observed. After irradiation, a drop in the level of cells with a high degree of DNA damage was noted, which was connected with an increase in the frequency of cells that were delayed in division at the S stage of the cell cycle. An increase in apoptotic activity in cultures of bystander cells was observed in all variants of the experiment (р < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

The influence of irradiated blood cells of patients with CLL results in an enhancement of the tumor-induced bystander effect manifestation in the PBL of conditionally healthy individuals.

[Effect of hydrostatic pressure on quaternary structure on the chaperone function of alpha-crystallin]

High hydrostatic pressure-induced changes in bovine lens alpha-crystallin oligomers size and chaperone-like function were studied by a static light scattering. Under pressure 1.5 kbar, alpha-crystallin oligomers size is almost unaffected. Increase of the size was observed during several hours of incubation at 3 kbar. Such high-pressure effect on association has been previously revealed for detergent micelles, whereas the "typical" protein oligomers are known to dissociate under high pressure. Our results about pressure influence on alpha-crystallin association supports the previously proposed "protein micelle" model of the protein quaternary structure. Chaperone-like activity of alpha-crystallin is shown to increase after incubation at 3 kbar. After the end of the incubation this activity is slowly decreasing during several hours.