DNA repair is less efficient in the nuclear matrix than in non-matrix nuclear fractions in the liver of rats treated with 2-aminofluorene

Radiation-induced oxidative DNA base damage and its repair in nuclear matrix-associated DNA and in bulk DNA in hepatic chromatin of rat upon whole-body gamma-irradiation

In the present work, we examined the formation and repair of DNA base damages induced by gamma-irradiation in different fractions of rat hepatic chromatin. Animals were exposed to radiation with the dose of 10 Gy. Nuclear matrix DNA and whole chromatin were isolated from the liver of rats killed before and in different time after irradiation. In those samples the pyrimidine-derived and the purine-derived modified DNA bases were identified and quantitated by gas chromatography/isotope-dilution mass spectrometry with selected-ion monitoring. We found elevated levels of modified DNA bases over control values after whole body irradiation in both matrix DNA and bulk chromatin samples. Our results suggest that modified bases are preferentially removed from matrix DNA then bulk chromatin.

The non-random distribution of UV-induced photoproducts in the nuclear matrix and non-matrix DNA fractions

The formation of UV-induced photoproducts in the chromatin fractions of human lymphocytes was studied by 32P-post-labeling. A higher level of DNA lesions was found in the matrix-attached DNA fraction as compared to non-matrix DNA of irradiated cells (about 150 and 110 adducts per 10(6) nucleotides, respectively, at a 500 J/m2 254 nm-UV dose). Formation of photoproducts in a MAR (matrix attached region) sequence from the mouse kappa immunoglobulin gene irradiated in vitro was examined as well. The MAR sequence showed a two-fold higher level of adducts as compared to non-MAR DNA. The effect of photoproducts on complex-formation between MAR DNA and proteins of the nuclear matrix was studied in vitro. The amount of UV-induced adducts was 1.5-fold higher in matrix-bound fraction as compared to non-fractionated DNA (and five-fold higher as compared to unbound fraction), which possibly resulted from preferential binding of lesion-containing DNA fragments to the nuclear matrix proteins.