Antikinetochore antibodies and flow karyotyping: new techniques to detect aneuploidy in mammalian cells induced by ionizing radiation and chemicals.

For a possible detection of aneuploidy induction by chemicals and ionizing radiation, fluorescein-bound antikinetochore antibodies (CREST-scleroderma antibodies) were used to discriminate between micronuclei deriving from acentric fragments or from chromosome loss induced in Chinese hamster cells. The cells were treated with aphidicolin, adriamycin, Hoechst 33258, colcemid, the alkylating agent diethyl sulfate, and ionizing radiation. The frequency of micronucleated cells, the fraction of kinetochore-positive and -negative micronuclei per cell, and the fraction of kinetochore-positive micronuclei was measured using immunofluorescence staining of kinetochores in micronuclei. Of the micronuclei and fragmented nuclei induced by colcemid, 99% contained kinetochores, whereas ionizing radiation induced only 4% of kinetochore-positive micronuclei. The other drugs induced variable, in some cases also cell-cycle-dependent, fractions of kinetochore positive micronuclei. With this technique a discrimination between clastogenic effects and effects that occur at the level of spindle formation of the agent studied seems to be possible. Flow karyotyping was used to study the induction of stable homogeneous and numerical aberrations in diploid Chinese hamster cell clones that had survived a dose of 15 Gy gamma-radiation. All analyzed clones showed deviations in their flow karyotypes: the mean number was 9.2 deviations per clone, compared to 1.1 deviations per clone in unirradiated control clones.