[en] The responses, such as survival, mutation, and carcinogenesis, of mammalian cells and tissues to radiation are dependent not only on the magnitude of the damage to macromolecular structures - DNA, RNA, protein, and membranes - but on the rates of macromolecular syntheses of cells relative to the half-lives of the damages. Cells possess a number of mechanisms for repairing damage to DNA. If the repair systems are rapid and error free, cells can tolerate much larger doses than if repair is slow or error prone. It is important to understand the effects of radiation and the repair of radiation damage because there exist reasonable amounts of epidemiological data that permits the construction of dose-response curves for humans. The shapes of such curves or the magnitude of the response will depend on repair. Radiation damage is emphasized because: (a) radiation dosimetry, with all its uncertainties for populations, is excellent compared to chemical dosimetry; (b) a number of cancer-prone diseases are known in which there are defects in DNA repair and radiation results in more chromosomal damage in cells from such individuals than in cells from normal individuals; (c) in some cases, specific radiation products in DNA have been correlated with biological effects, and (d) many chemical effects seem to mimic radiation effects. A further reason for emphasizing damage to DNA is the wealth of experimental evidence indicating that damages to DNA can be initiating events in carcinogenesis

[en] Molecular studies of radiation carcinogenesis are discussed in relation to theories for extrapolating from cellular and animal models to man. Skin cancer is emphasized because of sunlight-induced photochemical damage to DNA. It is emphasized that cellular and animal models are needed as well as molecular theories for quantitative evaluation of hazardous environmental agents. (U.S.)

[en] The predicted environmental effect of UV-B depend on the action spectrum for the response studied. Since such spectra change rapidly - usually decreasing with increasing wavelength - and since the biological effects depend on the product of the action spectrum and the sun's spectrum at the surface of the earth which decreases with decreasing wavelength, a slight change in action spectrum will markedly influence the predicted effects of ozone depletion on biological systems. Thus, the key, but by no means only step in the prediction, is a knowledge of the action spectrum. Unfortunately, it is rare that we know or even hope to know the spectrum for biological systems of interest such as skin cancer induction, nor is it possible to do experiments with solar simulators on many systems. Hence, we must base our predictions on the photobiological properties of simple systems and the knowledge of their action spectra and general biological theories connecting simple cells with higher organisms

[en] Some topics discussed are: correlation between carcinogens and mutagens; defective DNA repair in uv-damaged xeroderma pigmentosum cells; analysis of nucleotide damage to DNA following exposure to chemicals or radiations; photoreactivation in uv-irradiated Escherichia coli; tumor development in fish; excision repair as an aid in identifying damage; detection of excision repair; role of endonucleases in repair of uv damage; and alkylation products and tumors

No abstract available

No abstract available

[en] The weight of experimental evidence reviewed indicates that UV damage to DNA, probably pyrimidine dimers, is the best molecular candidate for the initiating damage that leads to skin cancer. It is postulated that the carcinogenic action spectrum should be similar to the DNA action spectrum filtered through the upper layer of skin

[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 report examines the process of excision repair of pyrimidine dimers from uv-irradiated and chemically challenged human cells. It is shown by means of a sensitive endonuclease assay that the amount of excision observed depends upon the isotope used to label cells, and that XP heterozygotes are between normals and XPs

[en] A number of examples are presented indicating the types of variation that may be expected in the responses of the human population to deleterious agents of an endogeneous or exogenous nature. If one assumes that the variations in repair in the normal population are reflected in large variations in carcinogenic risk per unit of exposure, then the dose-response curves at low doses cannot be extrapolated from high doeses without knowing the distribution of sensitivities among humans. The probability of determining this range by ecpidemiological studies on a random population by small. On the other hand, the probability of determining the range by careful genetic and molecular studies appears high enough so that such experiments now are being carried out. They cannot be carried out on real populations, using chronic exposures. Hence, the ability to estimate dose-response relations in the low dose region on human populations can only be by making theoretical constructs that, in turn, are dependent on fundamental research. 12 refs., 2 tabs