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Biomedical subjects

R B Setlow

Publications and source records attributed to R B Setlow.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

DNA chain elongation and joining in normal human and xeroderma pigmentosum cells after ultraviolet irradiation.

DNA synthesized in human cells after ultraviolet (UV) irradiation is made in segments of lower molecular weight than in unirradiated cells. Within several hours after irradiation these smaller units are both elongated and joined together. This repair process has been observed in normal human fibroblasts, HeLa cells, and fibroblasts derived from three types of xeroderma pigmentosum patients-uncomplicated with respect to neurological problems, complicated (de Sanctis-Cacchione syndrome), and one with the clinical symptoms of xeroderma pigmentosum but with normal repair replication. The ability of human cells to elongate and to join DNA strands despite the presence of pyrimidine dimers enables them to divide without excising the dimers present in their DNA. It may be this mechanism which enables xeroderma pigmentosum cells to tolerate small doses of UV radiation.

Carbon Isotopes↗

Endonucleolytic activity from Micrococcus luteus that acts on -ray-induced damage in plasmid DNA of Escherichia coli minicells.

A partially purified extract from Micrococcus luteus contains endonucleolytic activity toward ultraviolet (UV)-irradiated deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). We found that the same extract also acts on superhelical, covalently-closed circular lambdadv DNA isolated from gamma-irradiated minicells of E. coli. The introduction of nicks in isolated covalently-closed circular DNA by an endonuclease in the extract results in relaxed circles, and these two circular DNA species are easily distinguishable by their sedimentation properties in alkaline sucrose. The frequency with which the endonuclease-susceptible lesions are produced in superhelical DNA is only marginally enhanced when (60)Co gamma-rays are administered to an aerobic rather than an anoxic minicell suspension. The ratio of endonuclease-sensitive defects to single-strand scissions, induced by gamma-irradiation in air, is about 1:3. The nuclease-sensitive lesions disappear from gamma-irradiated minicells during incubation after radiation presumably as a consequence of excision repair. Since the addition of UV-irradiated calf-thymus DNA depresses the ability of the M. luteus extract to attack not only UV-damaged E. coli DNA (a known substrate for the so-called UV-specific endonuclease that catalyzes the initial single-strand incision adjacent to the structural defect) but, also lambdadv DNA injured by gamma-rays, we conclude that physicochemical alterations induced by both types of radiation are recognized by one and the same endonuclease.

Animals↗

Xeroderma pigmentosum: a rapid sensitive method for prenatal diagnosis.

When normal human cells, capable of repairing ultraviolet-induced lesions in their DNA, are incubated in the thymidine analog 5-bromodeoxyuridine after ultraviolet irradiation, the analog is incorporated into the repaired regions. When such repaired cells are subsequently irradiated with 313-nanometer radiation and placed in alkali, breaks appear in the DNA at sites of incorporation of 5bromodeoxyuridine, inducing a dramatic downward shift in the sedimentation constant of the DNA. Cells from patients with the disease xeroderma pigmentosum, which causes sensitivity to ultraviolet, are incapable or only minimally capable of repair; such cells incorporate little 5-bromodeoxyuridine into their DNA under these conditions and, upon 313-nanometer irradiation and sedimentation in alkali, exhibit only minor shifts in DNA sedimentation constants. When fibroblasts developed from biopsies of normal skin and of skin from patients with xeroderma pigmentosum, as well as cells cultured from midtrimester amniotic fluid, were assayed in this fashion unequivocal differences between normal and xeroderma pigmentosum cells were shown. Xeroderma pigmentosum heterozygotes are clearly distinguishable from homozygous mutants, and results are available 12 hours after irradiation.

Amniocentesis↗

Normal and defective repair of damaged DNA in human cells: a sensitive assay utilizing the photolysis of bromodeoxyuridine.

A new technique has been developed for studying the extent of repair of UV-radiation damage to DNA in human cells. It is easy to use, has excellent sensitivity, and provides rapid quantitative estimates of repair. UV-irradiated cells whose DNA has been previously labeled with a radioisotope are grown after irradiation in non-radioactive bromodeoxyuridine, which is incorporated at the breaks induced by repair enzymes. After a period of growth in the thymidine analog the cells are exposed to a large flux of 313 nm radiation and then lysed on top of an alkaline sucrose gradient. Bromodeoxyuridine-containing sections of the DNA are thus selectively photolysed. Sedimentation in the alkaline gradient reveals the average molecular weight of disrupted segments and gives a measure of the number of breaks induced by repair enzymes over the whole period allowed for repair. The large change in average molecular weight observed upon exposure of normal repairing cells to 313 nm radiation is not observed in the repair-deficient cells from patients with xeroderma pigmentosum. The quantitative aspects of this assay for repair and its sensitivity should make it applicable to the study of repair induced by agents other than UV radiation.

Animals↗

Ultraviolet- and X-ray-induced responses of a deoxyribonucleic acid polymerase-deficient mutant of Escherichia coli.

Escherichia coli K-12, polAl(-) is a mutant strain whose extracts are deficient in Kornberg deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) polymerase activity. We have compared the mutant and parental strains on the basis of a number of responses to ultraviolet (UV) and X-irradiation. For both types of radiation, the mutant is more sensitive by approximately the same factor as measured by reduction in colony formation, depression of DNA synthesis, and enhancement of DNA degradation. The rate of repair of X-ray-induced single-strand breaks in the mutant is also slower, as is the repair of breaks after excision repair of UV damage. On the other hand, the mutant has a significant capability to reactivate UV-irradiated lambda phage, although it is almost totally deficient in the ability to carry out UV reactivation. The data indicate that the polAl mutation leaves the cells with some ability to perform excision and strand-rejoining repair but that an exonuclease, whose identity remains obscure, is the agent responsible for the extensive breakdown of the DNA in polAl(-) cells after irradiation.

Bacteriological Techniques↗

Endonuclease from Micrococcus luteus which has activity toward ultraviolet-irradiated deoxyribonucleic acid: purification and properties.

An endonuclease purified approximately 3,200-fold from Micrococcus luteus is active on native ultraviolet-irradiated deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), but is inactive on unirradiated native or denatured DNA and has no activity toward irradiated denatured DNA. The major type of lesion for the nucleolytic activity is the cyclobutane pyrimidine dimer. The enzyme makes a number of single-strand breaks approximately equal to the number of dimers, but dimers are not excised. This endonuclease-a small molecular weight protein-therefore has all the attributes hypothesized for the first enzyme in the sequential steps in repair of DNA in vivo. Another paper shows that the endonuclease is able to reactivate ultraviolet-irradiated transforming DNA.

Carbon Isotopes↗

Endonuclease from Micrococcus luteus which has activity toward ultraviolet-irradiated deoxyribonucleic acid: its action on transforming deoxyribonucleic acid.

An endonuclease purified from Micrococcus luteus makes single-strand breaks in ultraviolet (UV)-irradiated, native deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). The purified endonuclease is able to reactivate UV-inactivated transforming DNA of Haemophilus influenzae, especially when the DNA is assayed on a UV-sensitive mutant of H. influenzae. After extensive endonuclease action, there is a loss of transforming DNA when assayed on both UV-sensitive and -resistant cells. The endonuclease does not affect unirradiated DNA. The results indicate that the endonuclease function is involved in the repair of biological damage resulting from UV irradiation and that the UV-sensitive mutant is deficient in this step. We interpret the data as indicating that the various steps in the repair of DNA must be well coordinated if repair is to be effective.

DNA, Bacterial↗

Inhibition of the induced formation of tryptophanase in Escherichia coli by near-ultraviolet radiation.

Induced formation of tryptophanase in Escherichia coli B/r is temporarily inhibited by near-ultraviolet (UV) irradiation. The inhibition is greater when irradiation is at 5 C than when at room temperature. Hence, the inhibition is the result of a photochemical, rather than photoenzymatic, alteration of some cellular component. The action spectrum has a peak in the region of 334 nm and is similar to that for growth delay. However, inhibition of tryptophanase formation is more sensitive to near-UV irradiation than are growth, respiration, and the induced formation of beta-galactosidase. Thus, for tryptophanase the lack of formation cannot be due to general inhibition of metabolism. Pyridoxal phosphate absorbs in the near-UV region of the spectrum and is a cofactor for tryptophanase, but this enzyme in induced cells is not inactivated by near UV-radiations. An experiment in which toluene-treated suspensions from irradiated and unirradiated cells were mixed showed that irradiation does not cause the formation of an inhibitor of tryptophanase activity. The possibility remains that the absorption of radiant energy by pyridoxal phosphate interferes with the synthesis of tryptophanase.

Cold Temperature↗

Evidence that xeroderma pigmentosum cells do not perform the first step in the repair of ultraviolet damage to their DNA.

Xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) is a recessively transmitted disorder of man characterized by increased sensitivity to ultraviolet light. Homozygous, affected individuals, upon exposure to sunlight, sustain severe damage to the skin; this damage is characteristically followed by multiple basal and squamous cell carcinomas and not uncommonly by other malignant neoplasia. A tissue culture cell line was derived from the skin of a man with XP. Our measurements of ultraviolet-induced pyrimidine dimers in cellular DNA show that normal diploid human skin fibroblasts excise up to 70 per cent of the dimers in 24 hours, but that fibroblasts derived from the individual with XP excise less than 20 per cent in 48 hours. Alkaline gradient sedimentation experiments show that during the 24 hours after irradiation of normal cells a large number of single-strand breaks appear and then disappear. Such changes are not observed in XP cells. XP cells apparently fail to start the excision process because they lack the required function of an ultraviolet-specific endonuclease. These findings, plus earlier ones of Cleaver on the lack of repair replication in XP cells, raise the possibility that unexcised pyrimidine dimers can be implicated in the oncogenicity of ultraviolet radiation.

Adult↗

Pyrimidine dimers in the DNA of Paramecium aurelia.

The production and fate of thymine-containing pyrimidine dimers in Paramecium aurelia DNA was investigated in three experimental series: production of dimers by UV irradiation, fate of dimers in the dark, and "loss of photoreactivability of dimers." It is shown that cyclobutyl dimers are made by UV irradiation of Paramecium DNA in vivo, that because of cytoplasmic absorption the number of dimers made in DNA irradiated in vivo is much lower than in DNA irradiated in vitro, that dimers are lost from animals incubated in the dark after irradiation, and that all the dimers that remain in the animals can be destroyed by photoreactivating illumination. Since mutation induction is photoreactivable, these and previous photoreactivation data suggest that pyrimidine dimers are important in mutation induction in P. aurelia.

Animals↗