Effects of hematin and Mössbauer gamma-radiation on human osteosarcoma cell lines

In the present work we report an investigation on cultures of the human osteosarcoma cell line «MG-63» and the human osteoblastic cell line «HOBIT». We have examined the combined effects of hematin and 14.4keV gamma-radiation from a Mössbauer source. Preliminary results seem to confirm the trend already observed for the bone marrow system. Different degrees of growth inhibition were observed when hematin alone and hematin plus gamma-rays were administered to the cultures. It was previously found that hematin has no toxic effects on normal cells up to a concentration of 10-4 M, but the same concentration produces various degrees of inhibition on cultures of tumor cells. While no significant effect could be attributed to irradiation alone, hematin plus irradiations show a larger inhibition than that expected for pure additive effects. © 1996 Società Italiana di Fisica.