Results and Data

During the Fall 2021 semester, I worked with the SKOV Cells and my lab partner worked with SKOV-AX Cells. The experiment included passaging and plating cells for the beginning of the week, irradiating the cells on Friday ( a long process of 5+ hours), and finally after 12 days, staining, counting, and analyzing the data as shown in Figures 1 and 2 below. There were two rounds of radiation conducted:

A dose of 7 Gy all at once (0hr)

A dose of 3.5 Gy twice with a 4-hour interval (4hr)

From Figures 1 and 2, it can be inferred that the cells that had been irradiated with the 3.5 Gy dose grew fewer colonies than the cells that had been irradiated with the 7 Gy dose. The possible reason behind this observation is that after the first dose of 3.5 Gy, the cells while incubating were undergoing the DNA repair mechanism which lead to the second dose of 3.5 Gy killing the majority of the growing cell colonies. But this tendency was greatly observed in the SKOV Cells but not the SKOV-AX Cells. Hence further research needs to be conducted and more data should be collected.

DOUBLING TIMES AND GROWTH CURVES

The growth curves of the cells were plotted in order to analyze the doubling times of the cell. Doubling times is the amount of time taken for the particular number of cells double. To plot the graph this experiment was done for the duration of 4 days. Day 0 was when the cells were plated. Day 1 was counted as the 24-hour mark, Day 2 was 48 hours and Day 3 was the 72 hours. Moreover, by solving the equation of the plotted line, the doubling time was determined.

The cell lines analyzed were, SKOV, SKOV-AX, p53 -/- MDM2 -/-, & p53 -/- MDM2 -/- MDMX -/-