Associations of subjective vitality with DNA damage, cardiovascular risk factors and physical performance.

AIM: To examine associations of DNA damage, cardiovascular risk factors and physical performance with vitality, in middle-aged men. We also sought to elucidate underlying factors of physical performance by comparing physical performance parameters to DNA damage parameters and cardiovascular risk factors. METHODS: We studied 2487 participants from the Metropolit cohort of 11 532 men born in 1953 in the Copenhagen Metropolitan area. The vitality level was estimated using the SF-36 vitality scale. Cardiovascular risk factors were determined by body mass index (BMI), and haematological biochemistry tests obtained from non-fasting participants. DNA damage parameters were measured in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from as many participants as possible from a representative subset of 207 participants. RESULTS: Vitality was inversely associated with spontaneous DNA breaks (measured by comet assay) (P = 0.046) and BMI (P = 0.002), and positively associated with all of the physical performance parameters (all P < 0.001). Also, we found several associations between physical performance parameters and cardiovascular risk factors. In addition, the load of short telomeres was inversely associated with maximum jump force (P = 0.018), with lowered significance after exclusion of either arthritis sufferers (P = 0.035) or smokers (P = 0.031). CONCLUSION: Here, we show that self-reported vitality is associated with DNA breaks, BMI and objective (measured) physical performance in a cohort of middle-aged men. Several other associations in this study verify clinical observations in medical practice. In addition, the load of short telomeres may be linked to peak performance in certain musculoskeletal activities.

DNA repair, mitochondria, and neurodegeneration.

Accumulation of nuclear and mitochondrial DNA damage is thought to be particularly deleterious in post-mitotic cells, which cannot be replaced through cell division. Recent experimental evidence demonstrates the importance of DNA damage responses for neuronal survival. Here, we summarize current literature on DNA damage responses in the mammalian CNS in aging and neurodegeneration. Base excision repair (BER) is the main pathway for the removal of small DNA base modifications, such as alkylation, deamination and oxidation, which are generated as by-products of normal metabolism and accumulate with age in various experimental models. Using neuronal cell cultures, human brain tissue and animal models, we and others have shown an active BER pathway functioning in the brain, both in the mitochondrial and nuclear compartments. Mitochondrial DNA repair may play a more essential role in neuronal cells because these cells depend largely on intact mitochondrial function for energy metabolism. We have characterized several BER enzymes in mammalian mitochondria and have shown that BER activities change with age in mitochondria from different brain regions. Together, the results reviewed here advocate that mitochondrial DNA damage response plays an important role in aging and in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases.

Base excision repair in nuclear and mitochondrial DNA.

Base excision repair mechanisms have been analyzed in nuclear and mitochondrial DNA. We measured the size and position of the newly incorporated DNA repair patch in various DNA substrates containing single oxidative lesions. Repair of 8-oxoguanine and of thymine glycol is almost exclusively via the base excision repair (BER) pathway with little or no involvement of nucleotide excision repair (NER). The repair mode is generally via the single-nucleotide replacement pathway with little incorporation into longer patches. Extension of these studies suggests that DNA polymerase beta plays a critical role not only in the short-patch repair process but also in the long-patch, PCNA-dependent pathway. Mitochondria are targets for a heavy load of oxidative DNA damage. They have efficient BER repair capacity, but cannot repair most bulky lesions normally repaired by NER. In vitro experiments performed using rat and human mitochondrial extracts suggest that the repair incorporation during the removal of uracil in DNA occurs via the short-patch repair BER pathway. Oxidative DNA damage accumulates with age in mitochondrial DNA, but this cannot be explained by an attenuation of DNA repair. In contrast, we observe that mitochondrial incision of 8-oxoG increases with age in rodents.

Repair of 8-oxodeoxyguanosine lesions in mitochondrial dna depends on the oxoguanine dna glycosylase (OGG1) gene and 8-oxoguanine accumulates in the mitochondrial dna of OGG1-defective mice.

Mitochondria are not only the major site for generation of reactive oxygen species, but also one of the main targets of oxidative damage. One of the major products of DNA oxidation, 8-oxodeoxyguanosine (8-oxodG), accumulates in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) at levels three times higher than in nuclear DNA. The main pathway for the repair of 8-oxodG is the base excision repair pathway initiated by oxoguanine DNA glycosylase (OGG1). We previously demonstrated that mammalian mitochondria from mice efficiently remove 8-oxodG from their genomes and isolated a protein from rat liver mitochondria with 8-oxoguanine (8-oxodG) DNA glycosylase/apurinic DNA lyase activity. In the present study, we demonstrated that the mitochondrial 8-oxodG DNA glycosylase/apurinic DNA lyase activity is the mitochondrial isoform of OGG1. Using mouse liver mitochondria isolated from ogg1(-/-) mice, we showed that the OGG1 gene encodes for the mitochondrial 8-oxodG glycosylase because these extracts have no incision activity toward an oligonucleotide containing a single 8-oxodG DNA base lesion. Consistent with an important role for the OGG1 protein in the removal of 8-oxodG from the mitochondrial genome, we found that mtDNA isolated from liver from OGG1-null mutant animals contained 20-fold more 8-oxodG than mtDNA from wild-type animals.

A human topoisomerase I cleavage complex is recognized by an additional human topisomerase I molecule in vitro.

Several recent studies have shown that human topoisomerase I (htopoI) can recognize various DNA lesions and thereby form a covalent topoisomerase I-DNA complex, which is known to be detrimental to cells. We have investigated whether htopoI recognizes another htopoI that is covalently trapped on a DNA substrate. For this purpose we created an artificial DNA substrate containing a specific topoisomerase I binding sequence, where the enzyme was trapped in the covalently bound form. We demonstrate that, in vitro, free htopoI stimulates the formation of an additional cleavage complex immediately upstream of the covalently bound topoisomerase I. The predominant distance between the two cleavage sites is 13 nt. In addition we find that these two enzymes may form direct protein-protein contacts and we propose that these may be mediated through the formation of a dimer by domain swapping involving the C-terminal and the core domains. Finally, we discuss the possibility that the double cleavage reaction may be the initial step for the removal of the recognized cleavage complex.

Molecular characterization of an acidic region deletion mutant of Cockayne syndrome group B protein.

Cockayne syndrome (CS) is a human genetic disorder characterized by post-natal growth failure, neurological abnormalities and premature aging. CS cells exhibit high sensitivity to UV light, delayed RNA synthesis recovery after UV irradiation and defective transcription-coupled repair (TCR). Two genetic complementation groups of CS have been identified, designated CS-A and CS-B. The CSB gene encodes a helicase domain and a highly acidic region N-terminal to the helicase domain. This study describes the genetic characterization of a CSB mutant allele encoding a full deletion of the acidic region. We have tested its ability to complement the sensitivity of UV61, the hamster homolog of human CS-B cells, to UV and the genotoxic agent N-acetoxy-2-acetylaminofluorene (NA-AAF). Deleting 39 consecutive amino acids, of which approximately 60% are negatively charged, did not impact on the ability of the protein to complement the sensitive phenotype of UV61 cells to either UV or NA-AAF. Our data indicate that the highly acidic region of CSB is not essential for the TCR and general genome repair pathways of UV- and NA-AAF-induced DNA lesions.

Gene-specific DNA repair of pyrimidine dimers does not decline during cellular aging in vitro.

A large number of studies have demonstrated that various kinds of DNA damage accumulate during aging and one of the causes for this could be a decrease in DNA repair capacity. However, the level of total genomic repair has not been strongly correlated with aging. DNA repair of certain kinds of damage is known to be closely connected to the transcription process; thus, we chose to investigate the level of gene-specific repair of UV-induced damage using in vitro aging of human diploid skin fibroblasts and trabecular osteoblasts as model systems for aging. We find that the total genomic repair is not significantly affected during cellular aging of cultures of both human skin fibroblasts and trabecular osteoblasts. Gene-specific repair was analyzed during cellular aging in the dihydrofolate reductase housekeeping gene, the p53 tumor suppressor gene, and the inactive region X(754). There was no clear difference in the capacity of young and old cells to repair UV-induced pyrimidine dimers in any of the analyzed genes. Thus, in vitro senescent cells can sustain the ability to repair externally induced damage.

Increased gene specific repair of cisplatin induced interstrand crosslinks in cisplatin resistant cell lines, and studies on carrier ligand specificity.

Development of resistance to cisplatin in previously treatment-responsive malignancies is a major obstacle to successful treatment. Enhanced DNA repair as well as enhanced replicative bypass of DNA adducts have been suggested to play a role in the development of resistance to cisplatin. However, the relative contribution of these mechanisms is unknown. Second generation platinum compounds containing the 1,2-diaminocyclohexane (dach) carrier ligand have been of particular interest in the studies of resistance mechanisms since they have been effective in treatment of cells resistant to cisplatin. We have investigated the formation and repair of interstrand crosslinks (ICL) in the mouse leukemia cell line L1210/0 and its carrier ligand specific resistant derivatives L1210/DDP and L1210/DACH after treatment with ethylenediamine (en)-Pt and diaminocyclohexane (dach)-Pt compounds. ICL in the overall genome were examined using a modification of the alkaline elution assay. A Southern blot technique was employed for the study of ICL in specific regions of the genome. In the overall genome we found decreased formation of ICL with either -en or -dach carrier ligands in the two resistant cell lines without carrier ligand specificity. Some carrier ligand specificity of ICL formation was observed in the dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) gene, but it did not correlate with the carrier ligand specificity of resistance. At the level of the overall genome there was no difference in repair of ICL between the sensitive and the two resistant cell lines. When measured in the DHFR gene, however, there was enhanced repair of ICL in the two resistant cell lines compared with the sensitive cell line. The enhanced repair at the level of the gene did not display any carrier ligand specificity.

DNA repair in a UV resistant Chinese hamster ovary cell line.

We have established an ultraviolet (UV) resistant Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell line B11UVres by repetitive UV exposure of the CHO cell line B11. We have characterized the resistant cell line with respect to growth, sensitivity to various DNA damaging agents, and the repair of UV induced DNA lesions. When examining sensitivity to UV in clonogenic survival studies, we find that the ID50 is increased 2.3-fold in the resistant cell line B11UVres compared to the parental cell line B11. Although the doubling time of the resistant cell line is greater than that of the parental cell line, there is no difference in the rate of replication after UV irradiation. When measuring repair of UV induced DNA lesions in the overall genome we find no significant difference between the two cell lines. However, at early times after UV, there is a significant increase in the rate of repair of cyclobutane pyramidine dimers (CPDs) in the transcribed strand of the dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) gene in the B11UVres cells compared to the B11 cells. There is a small increase of steady state transcription of the DHFR gene in the UV resistant cells, but hardly enough to account for the repair increase. The UV resistant cell line B11UVres is not cross-resistant to the cross-linking agents mitomycin C or cisplatin, but shows increased sensitivity to these compounds.

Repair of DNA lesions induced by ultraviolet irradiation and aromatic amines in normal and repair-deficient human lymphoblastoid cell lines.

A host cell reactivation (HCR) assay was employed to study the capacity of a normal and three repair-deficient human lymphoblastoid cell lines to repair DNA damage induced by UV irradiation and the aromatic amines 2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo[4,5-b]pyridine (PhIP) and N-acetyl-2-aminofluorene (AAF) respectively. The cell line belonging to xeroderma pigmentosum complementation group C (XP-C) removed all three types of damage less efficiently than the normal cell line, but more efficiently than the cell line belonging to xeroderma pigmentosum complementation group D (XP-D). The cell line belonging to complementation group B of Cockayne's syndrome (CS-B) showed reduced host cell reactivation. Fibroblasts from CS-B patients have reduced gene-specific DNA repair, but normal total genomic DNA repair, thus our data suggest that the HCR assay measures the capacity for gene-specific DNA repair. In the XP-D cell line, which had practically no DNA repair capacity, AAF adducts had a more potent inhibitory effect on gene expression than UV and PhIP adducts. When corrected for this inhibitory effect, the wild-type, XP-C and CS-B cell lines repaired low levels of AAF and UV adducts with similar efficiencies, however, PhIP adducts were repaired less efficiently.

Caffeine inhibits gene-specific repair of UV-induced DNA damage in hamster cells and in human xeroderma pigmentosum group C cells.

We have studied the effect of caffeine on gene- and strand-specific DNA repair after exposure of Chinese hamster ovary cells and human xeroderma pigmentosum complementation group C (XPC) cells to ultraviolet irradiation (UV). In hamster cells, caffeine inhibited the repair of cyclobutane dimers (CPDs) in the dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) gene by up to 66% after 8 h of repair incubation. This effect was dose-dependent, with more inhibition at 10 than at 1.5 mM caffeine. The inhibition was due to decreased repair in the transcribed strand of the hamster DHFR gene. This decrease in repair of CPDs in the DHFR gene correlated with an enhancement of UV-induced cell killing by caffeine. DNA repair was also measured in the overall genome by repair-replication analysis. In hamster cells, caffeine caused a modest enhancement of repair. Caffeine did not produce a significant effect on cell cycle progression up to 8 h after UV irradiation, but it caused a distinct block in early S phase during the 24 h post-irradiation period. In XPC cells, 10 mM caffeine inhibited the removal of CPDs from the transcribed strand of the DHFR gene by 92%. The removal of all photoproducts from the overall genome was inhibited by 26% in these cells. Since the residual repair in XPC cells is thought to occur in active genomic regions, we propose that caffeine preferentially inhibits gene-specific repair.

Inhibition of gene-specific repair of alkylation damage in cells depleted of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase.

The role of the enzyme poly(adenosine diphosphate-ribose) polymerase (PADPRP) in DNA repair at the level of the gene was investigated with human HeLa cells in which PADPRP antisense transcripts are inducible with dexamethasone. After such induction, the cellular content of PADPRP is reduced by 90%. DNA damage and its repair was studied in the essential dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) gene after exposure of the cells to either ultraviolet (UV) irradiation or the alkylating agent nitrogen mustard. The expression of the antisense construct had no effect on gene-specific repair of UV-induced pyrimidine dimers. In contrast, induced antisense cells were deficient in the gene-specific repair of nitrogen mustard-induced lesions. Dexamethasone itself did not inhibit gene-specific repair in control cells. Thus, PADPRP appears to participate in the gene-specific repair of alkylation damage, but not in the repair of UV-induced pyrimidine dimers. Clonal survival assays revealed that cells depleted of PADPRP showed an increased susceptibility to nitrogen mustard, supporting the notion that repair of essential genes is critical for cellular survival.

Studies on the role of topoisomerases in general, gene- and strand-specific DNA repair.

Using specific inhibitors we have assessed the role of topoisomerases I and II in DNA repair of the overall genome and in both strands of an essential gene, the dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) gene in chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. In these studies we have: (1) used inhibitors of topoisomerases during the repair incubation and (2) studied the DNA repair in cells with altered levels of topoisomerase activity. When cells were allowed to repair after UV irradiation, the gene-specific DNA repair was not affected by either topoisomerase I or topoisomerase II inhibitors alone. However, when topoisomerase I and topoisomerase II inhibitors were added simultaneously the gene- and strand-specific DNA repair were markedly inhibited. In contrast, the overall genome DNA repair was only marginally affected. This suggests that topoisomerases are involved in gene-specific DNA repair and that one type may substitute for the other in the repair process. That concept is further supported by our findings using a mutant cell line with a decreased level of topoisomerase I: gene-specific DNA repair can be inhibited by a topoisomerase II inhibitor alone. By analyzing the steady-state expression of the DHFR gene we find that inhibition of repair in the DHFR gene is not ascribed to an obvious change in the messenger level. Furthermore, using agents other than UV, we observe that the inhibitors have no effect on gene-specific repair of DNA damage introduced by the chemotherapeutic agents cisplatin and nitrogen mustard.

Repair of ribosomal RNA genes in hamster cells after UV irradiation, or treatment with cisplatin or alkylating agents.

We have measured the DNA damage formation and repair in the ribosomal and the dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) genes after treatment of hamster cells with different types of DNA damaging agents. In mammalian cells, the ribosomal DNA (rDNA) is transcribed by RNA polymerase I, whereas the DHFR is transcribed by RNA polymerase II, whereas the DHFR is transcribed by RNA polymerase II. Cells were treated with agents that induce different types of lesions, and that are known to be repaired via different pathways. We used UV (254 nm) irradiation, treatment with cisplatin and treatment with the alkylating agents nitrogen mustard (HN2) and methyl methanesulphonate (MMS). UV induced pyrimidine dimers were detected with the enzyme T4 endonuclease V, which creates nicks at the dimer sites; the breaks are then resolved and identified by denaturing electrophoresis and Southern blot. Intrastrand adducts formed by the alkylating agents HN2 and MMS were quantitated by generating strand breaks at abasic sites after neutral depurination. Interstrand crosslinks (ICL) formed by HN2 and cisplatin were detected by a denaturation-reannealing reaction before neutral agarose gel-electrophoresis. We find that the repair of the pyrimidine dimers is significantly less efficient in the RNA polymerase I transcribed rDNA genes than in RNA polymerase II transcribed DHFR gene at 8 and 24 h after irradiation. ICL and intrastrand adducts induced by HN2 are also removed more slowly from the rDNA than from the DHFR gene. In contrast, MMS induced intrastrand adducts and cisplatin induced ICL are repaired equally efficiently in the RNA polymerase I and RNA polymerase II transcribed genes. We conclude that for some types of DNA damage, there is less repair in the ribosomal genes than in the DHFR; but for other DNA lesions there is no difference. The difference in repair efficiency between the rDNA and the DHFR genes may reflect the different RNA polymerase involved in their transcription. It may, however, alternatively, reflect the different nuclear localization of these genes.

Repair of individual DNA strands in the hamster dihydrofolate reductase gene after treatment with ultraviolet light, alkylating agents, and cisplatin.

We have analyzed gene-specific and strand-specific DNA damage and repair in the dihydrofolate reductase gene in hamster cells. Cells were UV-irradiated or treated with two types of chemotherapeutics, alkylating agents or cisplatin. UV-induced pyrimidine dimers were detected using a previously published technique in which the T4 endonuclease V enzyme is used to create nicks at the lesion sites. 6-4 photoproducts were detected in a similar assay using ABC excinuclease after prior reversal of the pyrimidine dimers with photolyase. Adducts formed by the alkylating agents nitrogen mustard and dimethyl sulfate were quantitated by generating strand breaks at basic sites after neutral depurination. Cisplatin-induced intrastrand adducts were detected with ABC excinuclease, and cisplatin interstrand cross-links were detected using a denaturation-reannealing reaction before electrophoresis. In accord with previous reports by other investigators, we find distinct strand specificity of the repair of pyrimidine dimers after UV; the transcribed strand was much more efficiently repaired than the nontranscribed strand. In contrast, there was little or no strand bias in the repair of the 6-4 photoproducts. For alkylating agents, a slight bias toward repair in the transcribed strand was found after treatment with nitrogen mustard, but there appeared to be no bias in the repair after treatment with dimethyl sulfate. Cisplatin interstrand cross-links are repaired with equal efficiency from the two strands, but the more common cisplatin-induced lesion, the intrastrand adduct, is preferentially repaired from the transcribed strand. In conclusion, there is strand bias in the repair of pyrimidine dimers and cisplatin intrastrand adducts, but the strand specificity of repair may not be a general feature for all DNA lesions, as we found little or no strand bias in the repair of other lesions studied.

Repair of mitochondrial DNA after various types of DNA damage in Chinese hamster ovary cells.

Using methodology recently developed to assess gene-specific DNA repair, we have demonstrated that it is possible not only to study mitochondrial DNA repair, but also directly to compare mitochondrial and nuclear DNA repair in the same biological sample. Complex enzymatic mechanisms recognize and repair nuclear DNA damage, but it has long been thought that there was no DNA repair in mitochondria. Therefore, in an attempt to delineate more clearly which DNA repair mechanisms, if any, are functioning in mitochondria, we have investigated the repair of several specific DNA lesions in mitochondrial DNA. They include cyclobutane dimers, cisplatin intrastrand adducts, cisplatin interstrand crosslinks and alkali-labile sites. We find that pyrimidine dimers and complex alkylation damage are not repaired in mitochondrial DNA, and that there is minimal repair of cisplatin intrastrand crosslinks. In contrast, there is efficient repair of cisplatin interstrand crosslinks as evidenced by approximately 70% of the lesions being removed by 24 h. Additionally, there is efficient repair of N-methylpurines following exposure to methylnitrosourea with approximately 70% of the lesions being removed by 24 h. The results of these studies reveal that repair capacity of mitochondrial DNA damage depends upon the type of lesion produced by the damaging agent. We speculate that a process similar to the base excision mechanism for nuclear DNA exists for mitochondrial DNA but that there is no nucleotide excision repair mechanism to remove more bulky lesions in this organelle.

Effect of specific enzyme inhibitors on replication, total genome DNA repair and on gene-specific DNA repair after UV irradiation in CHO cells.

We have studied the effect of some specific enzyme inhibitors on DNA repair and replication after UV damage in Chinese hamster ovary cells. The DNA repair was studied at the level of the average, overall genome and also in the active dihydrofolate reductase gene. Replication was measured in the overall genome. We tested inhibitors of DNA polymerase alpha and delta (aphidicolin), of poly(ADPr) polymerase (3-aminobenzamide), of ribonucleotide reductase (hydroxyurea), of topoisomerase I (camptothecin), and of topoisomerase II (merbarone, VP-16). In addition, we tested the effect of the potential topoisomerase I activator, beta-lapachone. All of these compounds inhibited genome replication and all topoisomerase inhibitors affected the overall genome repair; beta-lapachone stimulated it. None of these compounds had any effect on the gene-specific repair.

Distamycin inhibition of topoisomerase I-DNA interaction: a mechanistic analysis.

Inhibition of eukaryotic DNA topoisomerase I by the minor groove binding ligand, distamycin A, was investigated. Low concentrations of the ligand selectively prevented catalytic action at a high affinity topoisomerase I binding sequence. A restriction enzyme protection assay indicated that the catalytic cycle was blocked at the binding step. Distamycin binding sites on DNA were localized by hydroxyl radical footprinting. A strongly preferred site mapped to a homopolymeric (dA).(dT)-tract partially included in the essential topoisomerase I binding region. Mutational elimination of the stable helix curvature associated with this ligand binding site demonstrated that (i) the intrinsic bend was unessential for efficient binding of topoisomerase I, and (ii) distamycin inhibition did not occur by deformation of a stable band. Alternative modes of inhibition are discussed.

Interactions between eukaryotic DNA topoisomerase I and a specific binding sequence.

The interaction between eukaryotic DNA topoisomerase I and a high affinity binding sequence was investigated. Quantitative footprint analysis demonstrated that the substrate preference results from strong specific binding of topoisomerase I to the sequence. The specificity was conferred by a tight noncovalent association between the enzyme and its target DNA, whereas the transient formation of a covalently bound enzyme.nicked DNA intermediate contributed insignificantly to the overall affinity. Topoisomerase I protected both strands over a 20-base pair region in which the cleavage site was centrally located. DNA modification interference analysis revealed a 16-base pair interference region on the scissile strand. Essential bases were confined to the 5' side of the cleavage site. The 6-base pair interference region observed on the complementary strand did not contain essential bases.