Overexpression of the XPA repair gene increases resistance to ultraviolet radiation in human cells by selective repair of DNA damage.

Overexpression of XPA genes, both wild type and a missense mutant, which code for a damage-specific, DNA-binding protein, increased the survival of repair-deficient and -competent human cells to levels above that of normal cells that did not overexpress XPA. The first 3 h after cells were damaged were most critical to achieving this increased survival. The dose at which 37% of the irradiated population survives could be restored to about one-half that of normal cells, with no detectable genome-wide repair of pyrimidine dimers or (6-4) photoproducts, suggesting that intermediate levels of XPA gene expression can direct repair to restricted critical regions of the genome. Current views of repair implicate transcriptionally active genes as a major component of such critical regions. Consistent with this interpretation, the repair of a transfected, actively expressed luciferase gene was higher than that of genomic DNA at intermediate and higher levels of XPA expression. High levels of XPA expression resulted in increased repair at early times after irradiation and extensive repair of (6-4) photoproducts but little, if any, pyrimidine dimer repair in the whole genome. At the highest level of expression, some clonal cell lines acquired resistance to radiation that corresponded to a dose at which 37% of the irradiated population survives that was about 1.5 to 2 times that of normal cells. The XPA gene product, therefore, can influence levels of DNA repair and radiation sensitivity quantitatively by contributing to selective repair at certain sites in the genome.

Prenatal diagnosis of xeroderma pigmentosum and Cockayne syndrome.

In a study of fetal cells from a series of 12 pregnancies in ten families at risk for the ultraviolet light-sensitive, DNA repair-deficient diseases xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) and Cockayne syndrome (CS), we detected one XP and two CS homozygote fetuses. The diagnoses were confirmed by analysis of fetal skin fibroblasts or second amniotic samples after termination of the pregnancies. The measurement of ultraviolet light sensitivity and DNA repair depended on properties common to the seven excision repair-deficient XP complementation groups (A-G) and the two CS complementation groups (A, B). No XP variant families were included in the study, because the variant requires different testing techniques. Reliable and rapid diagnosis proved possible in all but one of the 12 pregnancies, supporting the use of these methods until the spectrum of mutations in the various XP and CS genes of the U.S. population is fully characterized and a DNA sequence-based diagnostic procedure becomes available.

Cyclobutane dimers and (6-4) photoproducts in human cells are mended with the same patch sizes.

The size of excision repair patches corresponding to excision of (6-4) pyrimidine-pyrimidone photoproducts and (5-5, 6-6) cyclobutane dimers have been independently determined by using bromodeoxyuridine substitution and density increases in isopycnic gradients of small DNA fragments. The two classes of photoproducts were distinguished by using (a) a xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) revertant cell line that excises (6-4) photoproducts normally, but does not excise cyclobutane dimers from bulk DNA or from an actively transcribed sequence; (b) an XP cell line containing the denV gene of bacteriophage T4, which repairs only cyclobutane dimers by a unique glycosylase mechanism, and (c) normal cells analyzed during time intervals in which cyclobutane dimer repair is the main repair process in action. The patch sizes for the two lesions were similar under all conditions and were estimated to be approximately 30-40 bases. These values are slightly large than corresponding estimates for Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae but close to estimates from in vitro experiments with human cell extracts. The size of 30 bases may consequently be very close to the actual distance between cleavage sites made on either side of a photoproduct during repair.

Repair and replication of DNA in hereditary (bilateral) retinoblastoma cells after X-irradiation.

Fibroblasts from patients with hereditary retinoblastoma reportedly exhibit increased sensitivity to killing by X-rays. Although some human syndromes with similar or greater hypersensitivity to DNA-damaging agents (e.g., X-rays, ultraviolet light, and chemical carcinogens), such as xeroderma pigmentosum, are deficient in DNA repair, most do not have such clearly demonstrable defects in repair. Retinoblastoma cells appear to be normal in repairing single-strand breaks and performing repair replication after X-irradiation and also in synthesizing poly(adenosine diphosphoribose). Semiconservative DNA replication in these cells, however, is slightly more resistant than normal after X-irradiation, suggesting that continued replication of damaged parental DNA could contribute to the pathogenesis of the disease. This effect is small, however, and may be a consequence rather than a cause of the fundamental enzymatic abnormality in retinoblastoma that causes the tumorigenesis.