The study of radiation-induced bystander effects in normal human cells maintained in three-dimensional (3D) architecture provides more in vivo-like conditions and is relevant to human risk assessment. Linear energy transfer, dose and dose rate have been considered as critical factors in propagating radiation-induced effects. This investigation uses an in vitro 3D tissue culture model in which normal AG1522 human fibroblasts are grown in a carbon scaffold to investigate induction of a G₁ arrest in bystander cells that neighbor radiolabeled cells. Cell cultures were co-pulse-labeled with [³H]deoxycytidine (³HdC) to selectively irradiate a minor fraction of cells with 1–5 keV/µm β particles and bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) to identify the radiolabeled cells using immunofluorescence. The induction of a G₁ arrest was measured specifically in unlabeled cells (i.e. bystander cells) using a flow cytometry-based version of the cumulative labeling index assay. To investigate the relationship between bystander effects and adaptive responses, cells were challenged with an acute 4 Gy γ-radiation dose after they had been kept under the bystander conditions described above for several hours, and the regulation of the radiation-induced G₁ arrest was measured selectively in bystander cells. When the average dose rate in ³HdC-labeled cells (<16% of population) was 0.04–0.37 Gy/h (average accumulated dose 0.14–10 Gy), no statistically significant stressful bystander effects or adaptive bystander effects were observed as measured by magnitude of the G₁ arrest, micronucleus formation, or changes in mitochondrial membrane potential. Higher dose rates and/or higher LET may be required to observe stressful bystander effects in this experimental system, whereas lower dose rates and challenge doses may be required to detect adaptive bystander responses.