The sensitivities of SV40-transformed human fibroblasts to monofunctional and DNA-crosslinking alkylating agents

N-Nitrosodimethylamine-Mediated Formation of Oxidized and Methylated DNA Bases in a Cytochrome P450 2E1 Expressing Cell Line

The metabolic activation of N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) to reactive metabolites is a critical step for the expression of its toxic and carcinogenic potential. We have previously reported that a P450 2E1 expressing cell line, GM2E1, can metabolize NDMA to toxic reactive metabolites and cause apoptotic cell death. To investigate whether DNA is a critical target for the reactive metabolites of NDMA, we measured the levels of DNA adducts in untreated and NDMA-treated GM2E1 cells. 8-Hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), a biomarker for oxidative DNA damage, was analyzed following enzymatic hydrolysis of DNA. 7-Methylguanine (7-mGua), the most suitable marker for the DNA adducts formed by methylating agents, was released by thermal depurination of DNA. The modified guanine adducts were separated by HPLC and quantified using electrochemical detection. The levels of 8-OHdG and 7-mGua in GM2E1 cells treated with NDMA increased up to approximately 4- and 100-fold over those in the untreated cells, respectively. The addition of ascorbic acid, an antioxidant, to the NDMA-treated cells resulted in a significant decrease in the cytotoxicity with a concomitant decrease in the levels of 8-OHdG, but not the levels of 7-mGua. Our results demonstrate that the metabolism of NDMA in GM2E1 cells causes both DNA methylation and oxidation and support the hypothesis that NDMA-mediated DNA damage may play an important role in its toxic effects.

Increased radiosensitivity of p16 gene-deleted human glioma cells after transfection with wild-type p16 gene

The A1235 and T98 cell lines derived from human gliomas have homozygous deletions in their p16 genes and are radiosensitive and radioresistant, respectively, with respect to other established glioma cell lines. These differences in radiosensitivity may be due to variations to some extent among cell lines, rather than genetically defined resistance or sensitivity. We examined the effect on radiation sensitivity of introducing a wild-type p16 gene into both p16-deficient glioma cell lines. The plasmid pOPMTS containing human wild-type p16 cDNA and a neomycin resistance gene, or the control plasmid pOPRSV1, were transfected into these cells. Clones from both cell lines, which expressed wild-type p16 mRNA constitutively after transfection with pOPMTS, were more radiosensitive than the parental cells and clones obtained after transfection with the negative control plasmid.

Stable expression in rat glioma cells of sense and antisense nucleic acids to a human multifunctional DNA repair enzyme, APEX nuclease

We have cloned mouse and human cDNAs for a multifunctional DNA repair enzyme (APEX nuclease) having apurinic/apyrimidinic (AP) endonuclease, 3',5' exonuclease, DNA 3' repair diesterase and DNA 3'-phosphatase activities. To investigate the biological role of APEX nuclease, sense or antisense APEX RNA was stably expressed at a high level in cultured rat glioma cells by introducing plasmids (pABWN-HAPX1F for expression of sense RNA or pABWN-HAPX2R for expression of antisense RNA) constructed from the human APEX cDNA and an expression vector pABWN. Multiple copies of the construct were integrated into the glioma cells transfected with pABWN-HAPX1F or pABWN-HAPX2R. These transfectants showed markedly high expression of RNA hybridizable to human APEX cDNA, indicating the expression of the sense or antisense RNA. Activity blotting analyses of salt extracts of these transfectants showed that the sense RNA-expressed cells had higher AP endonuclease activity and that the antisense RNA-expressed cells had extremely lower AP endonuclease activity than the control cells. The APEX nuclease-depressed glioma cells became more sensitive to methyl methanesulfonate and hydrogen peroxide than the control cells or the APEX nuclease-overexpressed cells. The results indicate that APEX nuclease plays an important role in repair of DNA damage caused by these genotoxic agents. The present stable expression systems for the sense and antisense APEX RNAs should be useful for analyzing the biological functions such as an antimutagenic function of the enzyme.

X-ray-induced transcriptional activation of c-myc and XRCC1 genes in ataxia telangiectasia cells

The transcriptional level of c-myc, c-jun and XRCC1 genes after X-irradiation was compared in human cells originating from subjects presumably with different DNA repair abilities. The mRNA amount of the beta-actin gene was used as an internal standard of transcription. The relative mRNA level of c-myc and XRCC1 genes was significantly increased 15 min after X-irradiation with doses of 2-8 Gy in ataxia telangiectasia (AT) cells (AT5BIVA and TAT2SF), in contrast to little change in xeroderma pigmentosum (XP2OS(SV) and XP2YO(SV)) and normal cells (WI38VA13 and GM0637). The increased mRNA level of the XRCC1 gene in AT5BIVA and of the c-myc and XRCC1 genes in TAT2SF cells was maintained for up to 8 h after X-irradiation with 2 Gy. For the c-jun mRNA level after X-irradiation with 2-8 Gy, no significant change was observed in all cell lines tested. These results indicate that AT cells show a high transcriptional response of certain genes in response to X-irradiation, and suggest that the transcriptional activation of c-myc and XRCC1 genes after X-irradiation may be related to the hyper-radiosensitivity of AT cells.