In Vivo Sister Chromatid Exchange and Cellular Replication Kinetics of Normal and Lymphoma AKR Bone Marrow Cells¹

The recent development of an AKR(Rb6.15)1Ald lymphoma model in our laboratory presents a unique means of comparing sister chromatid exchange (SCE) frequencies and cellular replication kinetics of normal and lymphoma cells in the same host environment. Lymphoma cells, distinguished from normal cells by the presence of two metacentric chromosomes, had an average cell cycle time of 8 hr compared to 11 hr for normal cells. Normal bone marrow cells from nonleukemic AKR/J, nonleukemic AKR(Rb6.15)1Ald, and tumor passage recipients had similar baseline and 1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea-induced SCE frequencies following exposure to 4.4 mg 1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea per kg and 19 hr 5-bromo-2-deoxyuridine. While baseline SCE frequencies were only slightly higher, 1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea-induced lymphoma cell SCE frequencies were 3 times higher than normal induced SCE frequencies [34.06 ± 6.6 (S.E.) versus 11.0 ± 0.6 SCEs/cell].