Mutagenicity of reactive derivatives of carcinogenic hydrocarbons: evidence of DNA repair

Excision of DNA damage arising from chemicals of different carcinogenic potencies

Primary cultures of mouse embryo cells are more efficient in excising DNA-carcinogen adducts resulting from exposure to either 7-bromomethylbenz-[alpha]anthracene or the more carcinogen 7-bromomethyl-12-methylbenz[alpha]anthracene than are mouse L 929 cell suspension cultures. However, within each of these systems, the excisabilities of the adducts formed by either bromo-compound are similar, so differences in carcinogenic potency of the compounds cannot be attributed to differences in the excisability of their DNA-adducts.

Caffeine inhibits excision of 7-bromomethylbenz (a) anthracene-DNA adducts from exponentially growing but not from stationary phase Chinese hamster cells

Excision of 7-bromomethylbenz(a)anthracene (7-BMBA)-DNA adducts from exponentially growing cultures of Chinese hamster V79-379A cells followed logarithmic kinetics with a half of approximately 20 hrs. Post-treatment incubation in the presence of a sub-toxic concentration of caffeine markedly reduced this loss. Caffeine brought about a concomitant increase in overall DNA synthetic rate in treated exponential cultures. Excision in stationary, non-DNA-replicating cultures, was slower and caffeine did not affect this reduced rate of excision. These findings lend support to a previous proposition that the caffeine-induced inhibition of elongation of nascent DNA on a template containing chemical lesions results in an interference with the excision repair mechanism that removes these lesions.

Effect of DNA repair on the cytotoxicity and mutagenicity of polycyclic hydrocarbon derivatives in normal and xeroderma pigmentosum human fibroblasts

The cytotoxicity of the "K-region" epoxides as well as several other reactive metabolites or chemical derivatives of polycyclic hydrocarbons was compared in normally-repairing human diploid skin fibroblasts and in fibroblasts from a classical xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) patient (XP2BE) whose cells have been shown to carry out excision repair of damage induced in DNA by ultraviolet (UV) radiation at a rate approx. 20% that of normal cells. Each compound tested exhibited a 2- to 3-fold greater cytotoxicity in this XP strain than in the normal strain. To determine whether this difference in survival reflected a difference in the capacity of the strains to repair DNA damage caused by such hydrocarbon derivatives, we compared the cytotoxic effect of several "K-region" epoxides in two additional XP strains, each with a different capacity for repair of UV damage. The ratio of the slopes of the survival curves for each of the XP strains to that of the normal strain, following exposure to each epoxide, was very similar to that which we had previously determined for their respective UV curves, suggesting that human cells repair damage induced in DNA by exposure to hydrocarbon derivatives with the same system used for UV-induced lesions. To determine whether the deficiency in rate of excision repair in this classical XP strain (XP2BE) causes such cells to be abnormally susceptible to mutations induced by "K-region" epoxides of polycyclic hydrocarbons, we compared them with normal cells for the frequency of induced mutations to 8-azaguanine resistance. The XP cells were two to three times more susceptible to mutations induced by the "K-region" epoxide of benzo(a)pyrene (BP), 7,12-dimethyl-benz(a)anthracene (DMBA), and dibenz(a,h)anthracene (DBA). Evidence also was obtained that cells from an XP variant patient are abnormally susceptible to mutations induced by hydrocarbon epoxides and, as is the case following exposure to UV, are abnormally slow in converting low molecular weight DNA, synthesized from a template following exposure to hydrocarbon epoxides, into large-size DNA.

Endonuclease II of Escherichia coli: DNA reacted with 7-bromomethyl-12-methylbenz[alpha]anthracene as a substrate

An endonuclease II preparation from Escherichia coli makes single strand breaks in DNA which has been treated with the carcinogen 7-bromomethyl-12-methylbenz[alpha]anthracene. In addition, the enzyme preparation excises N6-(12-methylbenz[alpha]anthracenyl-7-methyl)adenine and N2-(12-methylbenz[alpha]anthracenyl-7-methyl)guanine residues from the DNA. These are relased as the modified purine bases, not as purine nucleoside derivatives. The rate of release of the adenine derivative is three to four times that of the guanine derivative.

The effect of a mammalian repair endonuclease on x-irradiated DNA

DNA was extracted from rat liver of non-irradiated animals, and was irradiated in vitro, and from animals which received whole body doses of X-radiation. Sedimentation on neutral and alkaline sucrose gradients as well as measurements of 32P release after sequential treatment with endonuclease and alkaline phosphatase and determination of triphosphate incorporation after the sequential treatment with endonuclease, alkaline phosphatase and DNA polymerase indicated that DNA irradiated in vivo and in vitro were effective substrates for the mammalian repair endonuclease. The experiments suggest that in addition to strand breaks, X-radiation causes base damage and they have provided a plausible explanation for the formation of double strand breaks in DNA irradiated in vivo.

Purification and characterization of an endonuclease from calf thymus acting on irradiated DNA

An endonuclease acting on DNA exposed to ultraviolet light or gamma-rays has been extensively purified from calf thymus. The enzyme has a pH optimum at pH 7.0-7.5, acts with equal efficiency in the presence of EDTA or divalent cations (Mg-2+ or Ca-2+), is inhibited by NaCl and tRNA and is inactivated by incubation at 50 degrees C. Its molecular weight, determined by Sephadex chromatography or sodium dodecylsulfate gel electrophoresis, is approx. 30 000. The enzyme catalyzes the formation of breaks with 5'-phosphate termini in double-stranded DNA irradiated with ultraviolet or gamma-rays. It does not act on unirradiated DNA or denatured DNA. Since in all these properties the enzymatic activity on ultraviolet- and gamma-irradiated DNA behaved similarly and since the two activities cochromatographed in all systems used during purification, we conclude that they are associated with the same protein. The site of action of the enzyme in ultraviolet-irradiated DNA is a photoproduct other than pyrimidine dimers. Such a photoproduct can also be induced by irradiation of the DNA in vivo, i.e. within the cells.

Mutations to azaguanine resistance induced in cultured diploid human fibroblasts by the carcinogen, N-acetoxy-2-acetylaminofluorene

The ability of the carcinogen, N-acetoxy-2-acetylaminofluorene (N-AcO-AAF), to induce mutations to azaguanine resistance in diploid human cells was quantitatively investigated and shown to be dose-dependent. The 8-azaguanine (AG) resistance was shown to be heritable in the absence of mutagen or selective agent and the cells of the mutant clones were shown to retain normal sensitivity to N-AcO-AFF.