Survival of cells in anoxia.

Recent polemics concerned with the problem whether the oxygen effect is pertinent or irrelevant to clinical radiotherapy (Hall 1967; Alper 1968) raised, among others, the question: For how long a period do cells actually survive under the severely anoxic conditions which may prevail at some sites in a tumour? Previous observations suggested that cultures of mouse embryo cells or rat connective tissue cells not only survive but also multiply under anaerobic conditions (Harris, 1956; Dales, 1960). Access to argon with an oxygen contamination of less than 3 ppm, and a closer knowledge of the rate of equilibration between the gas phase and the cells covered with culture medium (Baker and Town, 1966; Michael, Scott and Reveesz, 1966) permitted us to reinvestigate the problem experimentally under more rigorous conditions than used earlier.