ORIGINAL PAPER Low-radiation environment affects the development of protection mechanisms in V79 cells E. Fratini • C. Carbone • D. Capece • G. Esposito • G. Simone • M. A. Tabocchini • M. Tomasi • M. Belli • L. Satta Received: 8 April 2014 / Accepted: 16 January 2015 Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015 Abstract Very little is known about the influence of environmental radiation on living matter. In principle, important information can be acquired by analysing pos- sible differences between parallel biological systems, one in a reference-radiation environment (RRE) and the other in a low-radiation environment (LRE). We took advantage of the unique opportunity represented by the cell culture facilities at the Gran Sasso National Laboratories of the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, where environment dose rate reduction factors in the underground (LRE), with respect to the external laboratory (RRE), are as follows: 10 3 for neutrons, 10 7 for directly ionizing cosmic rays and 10 for total c-rays. Chinese hamster V79 cells were cul- tured for 10 months in both RRE and LRE. At the end of this period, all the cultures were kept in RRE for another 6 months. Changes in the activities of antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase, SOD; catalase, CAT; glutathione peroxidase, GPX) and spontaneous mutation frequency at the hypoxanthine–guanine phosphoribosyl transferase (hprt) locus were investigated. The results obtained suggest that environmental radiation might act as a trigger of defence mechanisms in V79 cells, specifically those in reference conditions, showing a higher degree of defence against endogenous damage as compared to cells grown in a very low-radiation environment. Our findings corroborate the hypothesis that environmental radiation contributes to the development of defence mechanisms in today living organisms/systems. Keywords Radiation environment/background Á V79 cells Á Spontaneous mutation Á Antioxidant enzymatic activities Á Adaptive response Á Defence mechanisms Introduction Life evolved over billions of years in environmental con- ditions that include the exposure to radiation from both space and the Earth mantle. Many studies have been devoted to the influence of factors such as temperature, pressure and atmospheric composition on life biochemistry (Banister et al. 1973; Ducommun et al. 2000; Havlicek and Slama 2011; Sandabe and Chaudary 2000; Tagaki et al. 1995). In contrast, fewer works have assessed the influence of radiation environments on cell metabolism. The pio- neering works of Planel et al. (1976, 1987) show that the growth of protozoan and cyanobacterium cells was inhib- ited when they were cultured in a low-radiation environ- mental laboratory in the Pyrenees Mountains. More recently, Smith et al. (2011) observed a stress response in mammalian and bacterial cells grown under reduced radi- ation environmental conditions at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), USA. The underground Gran Sasso National Laboratory (LNGS) of the Italian Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN), thanks to its very low-radiation environmental conditions, E. Fratini Á C. Carbone Á D. Capece Á G. Simone Á M. A. Tabocchini Á L. Satta (&) Museo Storico della Fisica e Centro Studi e Ricerche ‘‘Enrico Fermi’’, Piazza del Viminale 1, 00184 Rome, Italy e-mail: luigi.satta@lnf.infn.it E. Fratini Á G. Esposito Á M. A. Tabocchini Á M. Tomasi Istituto Superiore di Sanita ` (ISS), Rome, Italy G. Esposito Á G. Simone Á M. A. Tabocchini Á M. Belli INFN Roma1 Gr, coll. Sanita `, Rome, Italy L. Satta Frascati National Laboratory, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Frascati, Italy 123 Radiat Environ Biophys DOI 10.1007/s00411-015-0587-4