[The kinetics of polykaryon formation in a HeLa cell culture after irradiation at doses of 5 and 10 Gy].

Monolayer culture of HeLa tumor cells irradiated at 5 Gy and 10 Gy doses was followed up in kinetics for 14 days. It was shown that starting with day 3 the cell monolayer is modified in such a way that some cells occur in 2- to 8-cell accumulations. The rate of formation of such groups and the number of cells in them were dose-related. The labeling index in these formations was several times higher than that in the irradiated population on the whole. The analysis of the grade of DNA synthesis synchronization in these accumulations showed that complete cell fusion and polykaryon formation after irradiation at the dose of 10 Gy occurred on day 4 whereas after 5 Gy, only on day 7. In both cases the status of complete fusion was 3 days in duration.