PHOTOREACTIVATION OF ICR 2A FROG CELLS EXPOSED TO SOLAR UV WAVELENGTHS

Abstract Exposure of ICR 2A frog cells to photoreactivating light (PRL) following irradiation with a fluorescent sun lamp (FSL) resulted in an enhancement in survival compared with FSL-irradiated cells incubated in the dark. Hence, pyrimidine dimers played a role in the killing of cells exposed to the UV produced by this source. However, when the light was passed through a series of filters to remove increasing segments of the wavelength region shorter than 320 nm, the effect of the PRL progressively decreased, demonstrating that non-dimer photoproducts play an increasingly important role in the killing of cells exposed to wavelengths approaching 320 nm. Cells were also exposed to 313 nm UV produced by a monochromator and it was found, once again, that the effectiveness of the PRL treatment depended on the filter the beam was passed through. These results indicate that for both FSL-produced UV and 313 nm UV emitted by a monochromator, that the critical photoproducts induced within the cell depend on the filter used in conjunction with the UV source.