Detection of genetic alterations induced by low-dose X rays: analysis of loss of heterozygosity for TK mutation in human lymphoblastoid cells

Ionizing radiation is a potent inducer of mitotic recombination in mouse embryonic stem cells

Maintenance of genomic integrity in embryonic cells is pivotal to proper embryogenesis, organogenesis and to the continuity of species. Cultured mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs), a model for early embryonic cells, differ from cultured somatic cells in their capacity to remodel chromatin, in their repertoire of DNA repair enzymes, and in the regulation of cell cycle checkpoints. Using 129XC3HF1 mESCs heterozygous for Aprt, we characterized loss of Aprt heterozygosity after exposure to ionizing radiation. We report here that the frequency of loss of heterozygosity mutants in mESCs can be induced several hundred-fold by exposure to 5-10Gy of X-rays. This induction is 50-100-fold higher than the induction reported for mouse adult or embryonic fibroblasts. The primary mechanism underlying the elevated loss of heterozygosity after irradiation is mitotic recombination, with lesser contributions from deletions and gene conversions that span Aprt. Aprt point mutations and epigenetic inactivation are very rare in mESCs compared to fibroblasts. Mouse ESCs, therefore, are distinctive in their response to ionizing radiation and studies of differentiated cells may underestimate the mutagenic effects of ionizing radiation on ESC or other stem cells. Our findings are important to understanding the biological effects of ionizing radiation on early development and carcinogenesis.

Frozen human cells can record radiation damage accumulated during space flight: mutation induction and radioadaptation

To estimate the space-radiation effects separately from other space-environmental effects such as microgravity, frozen human lymphoblastoid TK6 cells were sent to the "Kibo" module of the International Space Station (ISS), preserved under frozen condition during the mission and finally recovered to Earth (after a total of 134 days flight, 72 mSv). Biological assays were performed on the cells recovered to Earth. We observed a tendency of increase (2.3-fold) in thymidine kinase deficient (TK(-)) mutations over the ground control. Loss of heterozygosity (LOH) analysis on the mutants also demonstrated a tendency of increase in proportion of the large deletion (beyond the TK locus) events, 6/41 in the in-flight samples and 1/17 in the ground control. Furthermore, in-flight samples exhibited 48% of the ground-control level in TK(-) mutation frequency upon exposure to a subsequent 2 Gy dose of X-rays, suggesting a tendency of radioadaptation when compared with the ground-control samples. The tendency of radioadaptation was also supported by the post-flight assays on DNA double-strand break repair: a 1.8- and 1.7-fold higher efficiency of in-flight samples compared to ground control via non-homologous end-joining and homologous recombination, respectively. These observations suggest that this system can be used as a biodosimeter, because DNA damage generated by space radiation is considered to be accumulated in the cells preserved frozen during the mission, Furthermore, this system is also suggested to be applicable for evaluating various cellular responses to low-dose space radiation, providing a better understanding of biological space-radiation effects as well as estimation of health influences of future space explores.

An approach to estimate radioadaptation from DSB repair efficiency

In this review, we would like to introduce a unique approach for the estimation of radioadaptation. Recently, we proposed a new methodology for evaluating the repair efficiency of DNA double-strand breaks (DSB) using a model system. The model system can trace the fate of a single DSB, which is introduced within intron 4 of the TK gene on chromosome 17 in human lymphoblastoid TK6 cells by the expression of restriction enzyme I-SceI. This methodology was first applied to examine whether repair of the DSB (at the I-SceI site) can be influenced by low-dose, low-dose rate gamma-ray irradiation. We found that such low-dose IR exposure could enhance the activity of DSB repair through homologous recombination (HR). HR activity was also enhanced due to the pre-IR irradiation under the established conditions for radioadaptation (50 mGy X-ray-6 h-I-SceI treatment). Therefore, radioadaptation might account for the reduced frequency of homozygous loss of heterozygosity (LOH) events observed in our previous experiment (50 mGy X-ray-6 h-2 Gy X-ray). We suggest that the present evaluation of DSB repair using this I-SceI system, may contribute to our overall understanding of radioadaptation.

Repair of I-SceI induced DSB at a specific site of chromosome in human cells: influence of low-dose, low-dose-rate gamma-rays

We investigated the influence of low-dose, low-dose-rate gamma-ray irradiation on DNA double strand break (DSB) repair in human lymphoblastoid TK6 cells. A single DSB was introduced at intron 4 of the TK+ allele (chromosome 17) by transfection with the I-SceI expression vector pCBASce. We assessed for DSB repair due to non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ) by determining the generation of TK-deficient mutants in the TK6 derivative TSCE5 (TK +/-) carrying an I-SceI recognition site. We similarly estimated DSB repair via homologous recombination (HR) at the same site in the derived compound heterozygote (TK-/-) cell line TSCER2 that carries an additional point mutation in exon 5. The NHEJ repair of DSB was barely influenced by pre-irradiation of the cells with 30 mGy gamma-rays at 1.2 mGy h(-1). DSB repair by HR, in contrast, was enhanced by approximately 50% after pre-irradiation of the cells under these conditions. Furthermore, when I-SceI digestion was followed by irradiation at a dose of 8.5 mGy, delivered at a dose rate of only 0.125 mGy h(-1), HR repair efficiency was enhanced by approximately 80%. This experimental approach can be applied to characterize DSB repair in the low-dose region of ionizing radiation.

Mutagenic radioadaptation in a human lymphoblastoid cell line

We investigated the mutagenic radioadaptive response of human lymphoblastoid TK6 cells by pretreating them with a low dose (5 cGy) of X-rays followed by a high (2 Gy) dose 6h later. Pretreatment reduced the 2-Gy-induced mutation frequency (MF) of the thymidine kinase (TK) gene (18.3 x 10(-6)) to 62% of the original level (11.4 x 10(-6)). A loss of heterozygosity (LOH) detection analysis applied to the isolated TK(-) mutants revealed the mutational events as non-LOH (resulting mostly from a point mutation in the TK gene), hemizygous LOH (resulting from a chromosomal deletion), or homozygous LOH (resulting from homologous recombination (HR) between chromosomes). For non-LOH events, pretreatment decreased the frequency to 27% of the original level (from 7.1 x 10(-6) to 1.9 x 10(-6)). cDNAs prepared from the non-LOH mutants revealed that the decrease was due mainly to the repression of base substitutions. The frequency of hemizygous LOH events, however, was not significantly altered by pretreatment. Mapping analysis of chromosome 17 demonstrated that the distribution and the extent of hemizygous LOH events were also not significantly influenced by pretreatment. For homozygous LOH events, pretreatment reduced the frequency to 61% of the original level (from 5.1 x 10(-6) to 3.1 x 10(-6)), reflecting an enhancement in HR repair of DNA double-strand breaks. Our findings suggest that the radioadaptive response in TK6 cells follows mainly from mutations at the base-sequence level, not the chromosome level.

Mutation induction in cultured human cells after low-dose and low-dose-rate gamma-ray irradiation: detection by LOH analysis

To study the genetic effects of low-doses and low-dose-rate ionizing radiation (IR), human lymphoblastoid TK6 cells were exposed to 30 mGy of gamma-rays at a dose-rate of 1.2 mGy/hr. The frequency of early mutations (EMs) in the thymidine kinase (TK) gene locus was determined to be 1.7 x 10(-6), or 1.9-fold higher than the level seen in unirradated controls. These mutations were analyzed with a loss of heterozygosity (LOH) detection system, a methodology which has been shown to be sensitive to the effects of radiation. Among the 15 EMs observed after IR exposure, 8 were small interstitial-deletion events restricted to the TK gene locus. However, this specific type of event was not found in unirradiated controls. Although these results were observed under the limited conditions, they strongly suggest that the LOH detection system can be used for estimating the genetic effects of a low-dose IR exposure delivered at a low-dose-rate.

A Threshold Exists in the Dose–Response Relationship for Somatic Mutation Frequency Induced by X Irradiation of Drosophila

The dose-response relationship of ionizing radiation and its stochastic effects has been thought to be linear without any thresholds. The basic data for this model were obtained from mutational assays in the male germ cells of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. However, it is more appropriate to examine carcinogenic activity in somatic cells than in germ cells. Here the dose-response relationship of X irradiation and somatic mutation was examined in Drosophila. A threshold at approximately 1 Gy was observed in DNA repair-proficient flies. In the repair-deficient siblings, the threshold was smaller and the inclination of the dose-response curve was much steeper. These results suggest that the dose-response relationship between X irradiation and somatic mutation has a threshold and that the DNA repair function contributes to its formation.

Mutations Induced by Heavy Charged Particles

The relative biological-effectiveness of radiation is increased when cells or tissue are exposed to densely ionizing (high-LET) radiation. A large number of studies focus on the following aspects of the biological effects of high-LET radiation: (i) basic understanding of radiation damage and repair; (ii) developing radiotherapy protocols for accelerated charged particles; and (iii) estimation of human risks from exposure to high-LET heavy charged particles. The increased lethal effectiveness (cell inactivation) of high-LET radiation contributes to new methods for using radiation therapy, but it is also necessary to study the enhanced mutagenic effect of high LET radiation, because higher frequencies of mutation can be expected to provide higher rates of carcinogenicity with human exposure. It is important to note that both measures of biological effectiveness (lethality and mutagenicity) depend on the quality of radiation, the dose, dose-rate effects, and the biological endpoints studied. This paper is intended to provide a review of current research on the mutagenic effects of high-LET radiation, and is organized into three sections. First, are descriptions of the induced mutations studied with various detection systems (section 1) because the detectable mutations induced by ionizing radiation, including heavy-ions, depend largely on the detection system used. Second is a discussion of the biological significance of the dependence of induced mutations on LET (section 2). This is related to the molecular nature of radiation lesions and to the repair mechanisms used to help cells recover from such damage. Finally, applications of mutation detection systems for studies in space (section 3) are described, in which the carcinogenic effects of space environmental radiation are considered.

Sensitive detection of LOH events in a human cell line after C-ion beam exposure

A molecular analysis of the loss of heterozygosity (LOH) events in human cells after low-dose heavy-ion exposure could contribute to the sensitive detection of the genetic influences caused by high-LET radiation. We exposed human lymphoblastoid TK6-20C cells to 10 cGy of an accelerated C-ion (22 keV/microm) beam, and observed a 3.1-fold increase in the mutation frequency (MF) at the heterozygous thymidine kinase (TK) locus over the background level. This increase was due to the induction of TK mutants exhibiting hemizygous-type LOH. Surprisingly, the frequency of type-2 hemizygous LOHs (interstitial deletions) was about 23-fold, induced over the background level, and the LOH extent patterns of this type 2 induced after the irradiation were clearly different from that of the spontaneous background.. Since hemizygous-type LOH mutants are considered to be the result of the end-joining repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSB), C-ions may more efficiently induce DSBs than X-rays in this low-dose region. In addition, an enhanced misrepair of C-ion-induced DSBs might also account for the induction of radiation-specific hemizygous-type LOH.

Heavy-ion-induced mutations in the gpt delta transgenic mouse: effect of p53 gene knockout

The influence of the loss of p53 gene on heavy-ion-induced mutations was examined by constructing a new line of transgenic mice, p53 knockout (p53(-/-)) gpt delta. In this mouse model, deletions in lambda DNA integrated into the mouse genome are preferentially selected as Spi(-) phages, which can then be subjected to molecular analysis. Mice were exposed to 10 Gy of whole-body carbon-ion irradiation. The carbon ions were accelerated to 135 MeV/u by the RIKEN Ring Cyclotron. The p53 defect markedly enhanced the Spi(-) mutant frequency (MF) in the kidneys of mice exposed to C-ion irradiation: the Spi(-) MF increased 4.4- and 2.8-fold over the background level after irradiation in p53(-/-) and p53(+/+) mice, respectively. There was no significant difference in the background Spi(-) MF between p53(-/-) and p53(+/+) mice. Sequence analysis of the Spi(-) mutants indicated that the enhancement of kidney Spi(-) MF in p53(-/-) mice was primarily due to an increase in complex or rearranged-type deletions. In contrast to the kidney, the p53 defect had no effect on the Spi(-) MF in liver: Spi(-) MF increased 3.0- and 2.7-fold after the irradiation in p53(-/-) and p53(+/+) mice, respectively. Our results suggest that p53 suppresses deletion mutations induced by heavy-ion irradiation in an organ-specific manner.