No abstract available

[en] Rates of DNA repair in ultraviolet irradiated nondividing human diploid fibroblasts were determined at doses as low as 1 J/sq m using an enzymatic assay for pyrimidine dimers. In normal cells, initial rates increased with dose to 20 J/sq m with no further increase at 40 J/sq m. At 10 J/sq m or less, repair occurred continuously over long postultraviolet periods until all the damage that could be detected was removed. The overall rate curves appear as the sum of two first-order reactions with different rate constants. The slow reaction extrapolates to 30 to 40% of the original dimers. Populations irradiated a second time after greater than 90% of the original damage had been removed repaired the newly added DNA damage with similar kinetics and to the same extent. Repair kinetics in a xeroderma pigmentosum strain lacks the rapid component and approximates the slow component of normal cells. If the slow component of normal cells is due to repair of less accessible dimers, as suggested by others, then by analogy, slow excision repair in XP12BE may be due to the poor accessibility of all dimers. This suggests that the XP12BE excision repair defect is in the enzymes that render dimers in chromatin accessible to repair

[en] The patterns (domain oriented versus a random location) and amounts of DNA excision repair, determined by standard density gradient techniques and sedimentation properties of partially repaired and UV-endonuclease-digested DNA in alkaline sucrose gradients, are reported for UV (254 nm)-irradiated nondividing xeroderma pigmentosum complementation group C or A (XP-C, XP-A) and normal cells. Repair synthesis in relatively UV-resistant XP-C (XP4RO) cells is domain oriented and limited (10% of normal values) while it is randomly located and not as limited in more sensitive XP-A (XP8LO) cells. Thus, greater UV resistance is associated with a very limited but domain-oriented pattern of repair. In XP-C cells, both total and domain-oriented repair syntheses, while limited, increase with UV dose and plateau at about 15-20 J/m2, as observed for normal cells. We suggest that repair in XP-C is limited at the lower UV doses (less than 15-20 J/m2) by substrate levels in specific chromatin domains and not by availability of essential enzymes for domain-oriented repair. In contrast, the XP-A strain XP8LO exhibits normal repair activities for doses up to 5 J/m2 and limited repair at higher doses, indicating that repair occurs through normal pathways that are limited by reduced availability of an essential enzyme

[en] Nondividing human fibroblasts are inactivated by radiation from a source (a Westinghouse sun lamp) that simulates the UV spectrum of sunlight. Survival curves determined for a DNA excision repair-proficient and a repair-deficient strain (XP12BE) are related to those determined using germicidal light (254nm) by constant fluence modification factors. In addition, the same fraction of XP12BE cells are killed per pyrimidine dimer by 254nm and sun lamp light. These results, when related to other survival and photoreactivation studies, suggest that the mechanism for inactivation of nondividing human cells by sun lamp light is the same as that by 254nm and that pyrimidine dimers, are the major responsible photolesion. Repair reverses some of the lethal effects of this light. It is suggested that these conclusions apply to sunlight-irradiated skin cells in vivo. (author)

[en] Nondividing populations of human diploid fibroblasts that are DNA excision repair proficient and repair deficient were exposed to mid-day summer sunlight and their survival determined based on their ability to remain attached to a culture vessel surface. Whereas mid- and far-UV wavelengths and sunlamp radiation cause a gradual degeneration and detachment of cells in a dose-dependent manner, sunlight does not promote cell killing in repair proficient cells. Detachment of repair deficient cells is promoted to a limited extent but only at sunlight exposure times that are low with respect to the amount of DNA damage induced. Repair proficient and deficient cells exposed to sunlight for longer times do not detach. Pyrimidine dimer levels in these sunlight irradiated cells were great enough to have promoted detachment had these levels been induced by UV (254 nm) alone. Other photodamage induced by these exposures evidently inhibits the dimer induced cell degeneration that leads to cell detachment. It was concluded that pyrimidine dimers are responsible for cell killing at short sunlight exposure times (<40 min) but that at longer exposures (>80 min) cells are killed by a different mechanism. (author)

[en] The rate of excision of sunlight-induced pyrimidine dimers in DNA of exposed human cells was determined. Two normal excision repair-proficient human diploid fibroblast strains (WS-1 and KD) and a repair-deficient strain (XP12BE, group A) maintained in a nondividing state were exposed to summer noon-time sunlight for times (5 and 20 min) that induced numbers of dimers equivalent to far UV (254 nm) exposures of 1 and 4 J/m². Pyrimidine dimers were quantified in extracted DNA using a UV-endonuclease-alkaline sedimentation assay. The excision rates of these dimers were similar to those observed for the excision of UV-induced pyrimidine dimers. No sunlight-induced inhibition or stimulation of DNA repair was observed in either strain at these low exposures. (author)

[en] Ultraviolet (UV) irradiation of non-dividing populations of ICR 2A frog cells led to their detachment from the surface of the culture dish and eventual lysis. Exposure of the cells to photoreactivating light after UV irradiation prevented cell killing and was accompanied by a loss of endonuclease sensitive sites from DNA. This photoreversal did not take place when the cells were exposed at 4⁰C to photoreactivating light indicating that the reversal was the result of photoenzymatic repair. As the action of photoreactivating enzyme is specific for the repair of pyrimidine dimers in DNA, the results suggest that pyrimidine dimers in DNA are the critical lesions leading to the death of non-dividing populations of UV irradiated cells. (author)

[en] Size separation after UV-endonuclease digestion of DNA from UV-irradiated human cells using denaturing conditions fractionates the genome based on cyclobutane pyrimidine dimer content. We have examined the largest molecules available (50-80 kb; about 5% of the DNA) after fractionation and those of average size (5-15 kb) for content of some specific genes. We find that the largest molecules are not a representative sampling of the genome. Three contiguous genes located in a G+C-rich isochore (tyrosine hydroxylase, insulin, insulin-like growth factor II) have concentrations two to three times greater in the largest molecules. This shows that this genomic region has fewer pyrimidine dimers than most other genomic regions. In contrast, the β-actin genomic region, which has a similar G+C content, has an equal concentration in both fractions as do the p53 and β-globin genomic regions, which are A+T-rich. These data show that DNA damage in the form of cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers occurs with different probabilities in specific isochores. Part of the reason may be the relative G-C content, but other factors must play a significant role. We also report that the transcriptionally inactive insulin region is repaired at the genome-overall rate in normal cells and is not repaired in xeroderma pigmentosum complementation group C cells. (author)

[en] Non-dividing human cells degenerate and eventually detach from a culture vessel surface when exposed to UV light. Action spectra for this kind of cell inactivation were determined using eight monochromatic wavelengths from 240 to 313 nm and both a normal DNA excision-repair-proficient strain and repair-deficient Xeroderma pigmentosum (XP12BE) strain. The action spectra for both strains have similar shapes with a broad peak between 254 and 280 nm followed by a steep decline at wavelengths greater than 280 nm. The relative action spectra are similar to those for inactivation of reproductive capacity and pyrimidine dimer formation in rodent cells suggesting that the critical target and critical damage for inactivation of non-dividing human cells is DNA and damage to DNA, respectively. Normal repair-proficient cells are 5-7 times more resistant at all wavelengths, based on a comparison of Dsub(o) values, than repair-deficient XP12BE cells, supporting the conclusion that the inactivating damage at all wavelengths is to DNA. (author)

[en] Nondividing human diploid fibroblasts (HDF) in culture have been used to study the effect on cell lethality of ultraviolet light, natural sunlight and X-rays. A lethal effect is defined as cellular degeneration, loss from the culture and inability to exclude vital strains. Far- and mid-UV have a readily observable lethal effect (cell loss), with DNA and DNA damage as the critical target and critical damage respectively. In part, natural sunlight kills cells by a similar mechanism but has an additional lethal effect at longer exposure times. This additional effect is expressed by the retention of the dead cells in culture, in contrast to the UV-induced promotion of cell degeneration and loss. Relatively large doses of X-rays that destroy proliferative capacity, have no detectable lethal effect on the maintenance of non-dividing cells. The biological response of nondividing HDF to radiations from different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum is dissimilar. (author)