125I seeds irradiation We used our in-house developed in vitro iodine-125 seed irradiation model shown in Figure 1 [18]. The model consists of a 3-mm thick polystyrene panel, with a lower seed plaque layer and an upper cell culture plaque layer. In the seed plaque, 14 seeds with the same activity were equally spaced within recesses (4.5 mm × 0.8 mm) PF-4708671 chemical structure around

a 35-mm diameter (D) circumference. In the cell culture plaque, the same recesses were made this website around a 35-mm D circumference; its center was along the same vertical line as that of the seed plaque, so that a 35-mm Petri dish could be placed on it during the experiment. The height (H) between the seed plaque and the bottom of Petri dish was 12 mm, with a D/H ratio of 2.9. The purpose of this design was to obtain a relatively homogeneous dose distribution at the bottom of the Petri dish. The Selleck MCC-950 polystyrene assembly was enclosed by a 3-mm thick lead chamber with a vent-hole, so that during the study the whole model could be kept in the incubator. The incubator played a protective role by maintaining

constant cell culture conditions. Model 6711125I seeds were provided by Ningbo Junan Pharmaceutical Technology Company, China. The single seed activity used in this study was 92.5 MBq (2.5 mCi), corresponding initial dose rate in model cells was 2.77 cGy/h. The dose uniformity of the irradiation model in the cell plane was 1.34, which was similar to other investigators’ results [2]. The model was validated using thermoluminescent VAV2 dosimetry (TLD) measurement. The absorbed dose for different exposure time in various culture planes has also been measured and verified. The exposure time for delivering doses of 100, 200, 400,

600, 800 and 1000 cGy are 36, 73.7, 154.6, 245.8, 345.1, 460.1 hours. Exponentially-growing CL187 cells in a tissue-culture flask (35 mm diameter) were irradiated using the above model. The cells were subsequently incubated for another 21 d at constant temperature and humidity. Irradiation was performed at the Zoology Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Figure 1 125 I seed experiment irradiation pattern in vitro. Clonogenic survival Clonogenic survival was defined as the ability of cells to maintain clonogenic capacity and to form colonies. Briefly, cells in the control and irradiation groups were exposed to different radiation dosages (0, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 Gy). After incubation for 21 d, colonies were stained with crystal violet and manually counted. The plating efficiency (PE) and survival fraction (SF) were calculated as follows: PE = (colony number/inoculating cell number) × 100%. SF = PE (tested group)/PE (0-Gy group) × 100%. A dose-survival curve was obtained for each experiment and used for calculating several survival parameters. Parallel samples were set at each irradiation dosage. The cell-survival curve was plotted with Origin 7.