Abstract
The clonogenic cell survival assay determines the ability of a cell to proliferate indefinitely, thereby retaining its reproductive ability to form a large colony or a clone. This cell is then said to be clonogenic. A cell survival curve is therefore defined as a relationship between the dose of the agent used to produce an insult and the fraction of cells retaining their ability to reproduce. Although clonogenic cell survival assays were initially described for studying the effects of radiation on cells and have played an essential role in radiobiology, they are now widely used to examine the effects of agents with potential applications in the clinic. These include, in addition to ionizing radiation, chemotherapy agents such as etoposide and cisplatin, antiangiogenic agents such as endostatin and angiostatin, and cytokines and their receptors, either alone or in combination therapy. Survival curves have been generated for many established cell lines growing in culture. One can use cell lines from various origins including humans and rodents; these cells can be neoplastic or normal. Because survival curves have wide application in evaluating the reproductive integrity of different cells, we provide here the steps involved in setting up a typical experiment using an established cell line in culture.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Elkind, M. E. and Whitmore, G. F. (1967) In vitro survival curves, in The Radiobiology of Cultured Mammalian Cells, Gordon and Breach, New York, NY, pp. 53ā115.
Hall, E. J. (2000) Cell survival curves, in Radiobiology for the Radiologist, 5th ed. (Hall, E. J., ed.), Philadelphia, J.B. Lippincott, pp. 32ā50.
Elkind, M. M and Sutton, H. (1960) Radiation response of mammalian cells grown in culture. I. Repair of X-ray damage in surviving Chinese hamster cells. Radiat. Res. 13, 556ā593.
Elkind, M. M., Han, A., and Volz, K. W. (1963) Radiation response of mammalian cells grown in culture. IV. Dose dependence of division delay and postirradiation growth of surviving and non surviving Chinese Hamster cells. J. Natl. Cancer. Inst. 30, 705ā721.
Sinclair, W. K. and Stroud, A. N. (1962) Postirradiation changes in growth, chromosome number and survival properties of cultures of Chinese hamster cells [abstract]. Radiat. Res. 16, 590.
Puck, T. T. and Marcus, P. I. (1956) Action of X-rays on mammalian cells. J. Exp. Med. 103, 653ā666.
Sinclair, W. K. (1964) X-ray induced heritable damage (small-colony formation) in cultured mammalian cells. Radiat. Res. 21, 584ā611.
Whitfield, J. F. and Rixon, R. H. (1960) Radiation resistant derivatives of L strain mouse cells. Exp. Cell Res. 19, 531ā538.
Barendsen, G. W., Beusker, T. L. J., Vergroesen, A. J., and Budke, L. (1960) Effects of different ionizing radiations on human cells in tissue culture. II. Biological experiments. Radiat. Res. 13, 841ā849.
Alper, T., Gillies, N. E., and Elkind, M. M. (1960) The sigmoid survival curve in radiobiology. Nature 186, 1062ā1063.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
Ā© 2005 Humana Press Inc., Totowa, NJ
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Munshi, A., Hobbs, M., Meyn, R.E. (2005). Clonogenic Cell Survival Assay. In: Blumenthal, R.D. (eds) Chemosensitivity. Methods in Molecular Medicineā¢, vol 110. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-869-2:021
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-869-2:021
Publisher Name: Humana Press
Print ISBN: 978-1-58829-345-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-59259-869-4
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols