Neutrophil extracellular traps promote liver micrometastasis in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma via the activation of cancer­associated fibroblasts.

Cancer­associated fibroblasts (CAFs) promote the progression of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) via tumor­stromal interactions. Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) are extracellular DNA meshworks released from neutrophils together with proteolytic enzymes against foreign pathogens. Emerging studies suggest their contribution to liver metastasis in several types of cancer. Herein, in order to investigate the role of NETs in liver metastasis in PDAC, the effects of NET inhibitors on spontaneous PDAC mouse models were evaluated. It was demonstrated that DNase I, a NET inhibitor, suppressed liver metastasis. For further investigation, further attention was paid to liver micrometastasis and an experimental liver metastasis mouse model was used that was generated by intrasplenic tumor injection. Furthermore, DNase I also suppressed liver micrometastasis and notably, CAFs accumulated in metastatic foci were significantly decreased in number. In vitro experiments revealed that pancreatic cancer cells induced NET formation and consequently NETs enhanced the migration of hepatic stellate cells, which was the possible origin of CAFs in liver metastasis. On the whole, these results suggest that NETs promote liver micrometastasis in PDAC via the activation of CAFs.

Mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the anal canal: A case report and review of the literature.

Mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the anal canal is a rare tumor. We herein report the case of a 74-year-old male patient with a high-grade mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the anal canal who was treated by local surgical resection and subsequent irradiation. However, the patient succumbed to liver and lung metastases 2 years after the procedure. The characteristic findings of mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the anus remain unclear to date due to rarity of this tumor. Since 1954, when this type of tumor was first described, only 58 cases of patients diagnosed with mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the anus have been reported to date. In this context, a review of the existing English literature on this rare tumor was also performed.

Anal Canal Duplication Associated with Presacral Cyst in an Adult.

Anal canal duplication (ACD) is a rare congenital malformation, usually detected early in life. We report a case of a 67-year-old female with symptomatic ACD associated with a presacral cyst. Physical examination revealed an accessory opening located in the midline, posterior to the true anus. Imaging examinations, including fistulography, endoanal ultrasonography, and magnetic resonance imaging, revealed a blind-ending fistulous tract without connecting with the rectum and a presacral cyst posterior to the rectum. Complete surgical excision of the tract with cyst was performed through a posterior sagittal approach. Histologic examination revealed squamous epithelium lining and smooth muscle bundles, thereby confirming ACD. The postoperative course was uneventful, and the patient was doing well; no recurrence was observed 4 years after surgery. ACD can present for the first time in infants, children, and adults. Imaging examinations are useful for the diagnosis and preoperative assessment of ACD. Therefore, ACD should be considered in the differential diagnosis, even in adults, when a posterior perineal orifice is encountered, particularly in female patients. Once ACD is suspected, intense imaging inspection is recommended to visualize the ACD and associated anomalies, and surgical removal is warranted to prevent inflammatory complications or malignant changes.

Degree of desmoplasia in metastatic lymph node lesions is associated with lesion size and poor prognosis in pancreatic cancer patients.

Pancreatic cancer is characterized by increased hyperplasia of fibrotic tissue, termed desmoplasia, and lymph node metastasis is an independent prognostic factor in this disease. However, there are no reports focused on desmoplasia in pancreatic cancer lymph node metastases. The present study evaluated a range of factors and investigated their association with poor prognosis in pancreatic cancer cases with lymph node metastasis, including the degree of desmoplasia in lesions. To identify the poor prognostic factors associated with lymph node metastasis, the present study retrospectively reviewed the clinical data of 65 patients with lymph node metastases that underwent surgical pancreatic cancer resection between 2007 and 2012 at a single institution. The investigation focused on the degree of fibrosis in metastatic lesions in 216 lymph nodes, and investigated associations with prognosis or clinicopathological findings. The ratios of the fibrotic area in metastatic lymph node lesions were evaluated and classified into three categories, high (≥70%), moderate (10-70%) and low (<10%). Desmoplasia was not observed in cancer-free lymph nodes. The size of metastatic lymph node lesions was additionally measured, and a significant association between metastatic lesion size and the degree of desmoplasia was observed (P<0.001). The degree of desmoplasia was additionally associated with local extranodal invasion. In the analysis of 65 pancreatic cancer patients with metastatic lymph nodes, the presence of multiple metastatic lymph nodes with moderate or high desmoplasia was significantly associated with poor survival (high, P=0.0048; moderate/high, P=0.0075). Of several clinicopathological factors, the presence of multiple metastatic lymph nodes with high or moderate desmoplasia was associated with overall survival in univariate (P=0.0098) and multivariate (P=0.0466) analyses. The degree of desmoplasia in metastatic lymph nodes is associated with lesion size, and the presence of multiple metastatic lymph nodes with desmoplasia is an independent poor prognostic factor, suggesting that the desmoplasia may have an important role in the malignant progression of lymph node metastases.

Endoanal Ultrasonography of Mucinous Adenocarcinoma Arising from Chronic Fistula-in-ano: Three Case Reports.

Mucinous adenocarcinoma arising in chronic fistula-in-ano is rare, and diagnosing it at an early stage is difficult. The role of endoanal ultrasonography in diagnosing the condition has not been discussed in the study. Herein, we report three cases of mucinous adenocarcinoma arising from anal fistulas in which endosonography played an important role in diagnosing malignant change. Three male patients with a 5- to 20-year history of anal fistula were referred to our hospital due to perianal induration, progressive anal pain, or mucopurulent secretion. In all three patients, endosonography revealed a multiloculated complex echoic mass with isoechoic solid components communicating with a trans-sphincteric fistula and sonography-guided biopsy under anesthesia revealed mucinous adenocarcinoma. All patients underwent abdominoperineal resection with lymph node dissection. One patient with a local recurrence died 3 years after surgery and two have remained disease-free for >6 years. These observations suggest that endosonography may be a reliable technique for the diagnosis of mucinous adenocarcinoma arising from chronic fistula-in-ano. Sonography-guided biopsy is useful for the definitive diagnosis of malignancy. Therefore, periodic endosonography assessment should be recommended for patients with persistent anal fistula, especially those with progressive clinical symptoms. Once malignancy is suspected, aggressive sonography-guided biopsy under anesthesia should be performed, which may enable an early diagnosis, curative treatment, and favorable long-term results.

Significance of combination therapy of zoledronic acid and gemcitabine on pancreatic cancer.

In the present study, we examined the cytotoxic effects of combination therapy with zoledronic acid (ZOL) and gemcitabine (GEM) on pancreatic cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. Four human pancreatic cancer cell lines were treated with ZOL, GEM or a combination of both, and the effects of the respective drug regimens on cell proliferation, invasion and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) expression were examined. A pancreatic cancer cell line was also intrasplenically or orthotopically implanted into athymic mice and the effects of these drugs on tumor metastasis and growth in vivo were evaluated by histological and immunohistochemical analyses. Combination treatment with low doses of ZOL and GEM efficiently inhibited the proliferation (P < 0.001) and invasion (P < 0.001) of pancreatic cancer cells in vitro. Western blotting assay revealed that MMP-2 and MMP-9 expression levels were decreased after ZOL treatment. In vivo, combined treatment significantly inhibited tumor growth (P < 0.05) and the development of liver metastasis (P < 0.05). These data revealed that ZOL and GEM, when used in combination, have significant antitumor, anti-metastatic and anti-angiogenic effects on pancreatic cancer cells. The present study is the first to report the significance of the combination treatment of ZOL and GEM in pancreatic cancer using an in vivo model. These data are promising for the future application of this drug regimen in patients with pancreatic cancer.

FosB is essential for the enhancement of stress tolerance and antagonizes locomotor sensitization by ΔFosB.

BACKGROUND: Molecular mechanisms underlying stress tolerance and vulnerability are incompletely understood. The fosB gene is an attractive candidate for regulating stress responses, because ΔFosB, an alternative splice product of the fosB gene, accumulates after repeated stress or antidepressant treatments. On the other hand, FosB, the other alternative splice product of the fosB gene, expresses more transiently than ΔFosB but exerts higher transcriptional activity. However, the functional differences of these two fosB products remain unclear. METHODS: We established various mouse lines carrying three different types of fosB allele, wild-type (fosB(+)), fosB-null (fosB(G)), and fosB(d) allele, which encodes ΔFosB but not FosB, and analyzed them in stress-related behavioral tests. RESULTS: Because fosB(+/d) mice show enhanced ΔFosB levels in the presence of FosB and fosB(d/d) mice show more enhanced ΔFosB levels in the absence of FosB, the function of FosB can be inferred from differences observed between these lines. The fosB(+/d) and fosB(d/d) mice showed increased locomotor activity and elevated Akt phosphorylation, whereas only fosB(+/d) mice showed antidepressive-like behaviors and increased E-cadherin expression in striatum compared with wild-type mice. In contrast, fosB-null mice showed increased depression-like behavior and lower E-cadherin expression. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that FosB is essential for stress tolerance mediated by ΔFosB. These data suggest that fosB gene products have a potential to regulate mood disorder-related behaviors.

Prospectively isolated cancer-associated CD10(+) fibroblasts have stronger interactions with CD133(+) colon cancer cells than with CD133(-) cancer cells.

Although CD133 has been reported to be a promising colon cancer stem cell marker, the biological functions of CD133+ colon cancer cells remain controversial. In the present study, we investigated the biological differences between CD133+ and CD133- colon cancer cells, with a particular focus on their interactions with cancer-associated fibroblasts, especially CD10+ fibroblasts. We used 19 primary colon cancer tissues, 30 primary cultures of fibroblasts derived from colon cancer tissues and 6 colon cancer cell lines. We isolated CD133+ and CD133- subpopulations from the colon cancer tissues and cultured cells. In vitro analyses revealed that the two populations showed similar biological behaviors in their proliferation and chemosensitivity. In vivo analyses revealed that CD133+ cells showed significantly greater tumor growth than CD133- cells (P=0.007). Moreover, in cocultures with primary fibroblasts derived from colon cancer tissues, CD133+ cells exhibited significantly more invasive behaviors than CD133- cells (P<0.001), especially in cocultures with CD10+ fibroblasts (P<0.0001). Further in vivo analyses revealed that CD10+ fibroblasts enhanced the tumor growth of CD133+ cells significantly more than CD10- fibroblasts (P<0.05). These data demonstrate that the in vitro invasive properties and in vivo tumor growth of CD133+ colon cancer cells are enhanced in the presence of specific cancer-associated fibroblasts, CD10+ fibroblasts, suggesting that the interactions between these specific cell populations have important roles in cancer progression. Therefore, these specific interactions may be promising targets for new colon cancer therapies.

Antagonistic regulation of cell-matrix adhesion by FosB and DeltaFosB/Delta2DeltaFosB encoded by alternatively spliced forms of fosB transcripts.

Among fos family genes encoding components of activator protein-1 complex, only the fosB gene produces two forms of mature transcripts, namely fosB and DeltafosB mRNAs, by alternative splicing of an exonic intron. The former encodes full-length FosB. The latter encodes DeltaFosB and Delta2DeltaFosB by alternative translation initiation, and both of these lack the C-terminal transactivation domain of FosB. We established two mutant mouse embryonic stem (ES) cell lines carrying homozygous fosB-null alleles and fosB(d) alleles, the latter exclusively encoding DeltaFosB/Delta2DeltaFosB. Comparison of their gene expression profiles with that of the wild type revealed that more than 200 genes were up-regulated, whereas 19 genes were down-regulated in a DeltaFosB/Delta2DeltaFosB-dependent manner. We furthermore found that mRNAs for basement membrane proteins were significantly up-regulated in fosB(d/d) but not fosB-null mutant cells, whereas genes involved in the TGF-beta1 signaling pathway were up-regulated in both mutants. Cell-matrix adhesion was remarkably augmented in fosB(d/d) ES cells and to some extent in fosB-null cells. By analyzing ES cell lines carrying homozygous fosB(FN) alleles, which exclusively encode FosB, we confirmed that FosB negatively regulates cell-matrix adhesion and the TGF-beta1 signaling pathway. We thus concluded that FosB and DeltaFosB/Delta2DeltaFosB use this pathway to antagonistically regulate cell matrix adhesion.

MUTYH-null mice are susceptible to spontaneous and oxidative stress induced intestinal tumorigenesis.

MUTYH is a mammalian DNA glycosylase that initiates base excision repair by excising adenine opposite 8-oxoguanine and 2-hydroxyadenine opposite guanine, thereby preventing G:C to T:A transversion caused by oxidative stress. Recently, biallelic germ-line mutations of MUTYH have been found in patients predisposed to a recessive form of hereditary multiple colorectal adenoma and carcinoma with an increased incidence of G:C to T:A somatic mutations in the APC gene. In the present study, a systematic histologic examination revealed that more spontaneous tumors had developed in MUTYH-null mice (72 of 121; 59.5%) than in the wild type (38 of 109; 34.9%). The increased incidence of intestinal tumors in MUTYH-null mice (11 tumors in 10 of 121 mice) was statistically significant compared with the wild type (no intestinal tumors in 109 mice). Two adenomas and seven adenocarcinomas were observed in the small intestines, and two adenomas but no carcinomas were found in the colons. In MUTYH-null mice treated with KBrO(3), the occurrence of small intestinal tumors dramatically increased. The mean number of polyps induced in the small intestines of these mice was 61.88 (males, 72.75; females, 51.00), whereas it was 0.85 (males, 0.50; females, 1.00) in wild-type mice. The tumors developed predominantly in the duodenum and in the upper region of the (jejunum) small intestines. We conclude that MUTYH suppresses spontaneous tumorigenesis in mammals, thus providing experimental evidence for the association between biallelic germ-line MUTYH mutations and a recessive form of human hereditary colorectal adenoma and carcinoma.

Contrasting genome-wide distribution of 8-hydroxyguanine and acrolein-modified adenine during oxidative stress-induced renal carcinogenesis.

Oxidative stress is a persistent threat to the genome and is associated with major causes of human mortality, including cancer, atherosclerosis, and aging. Here we established a method to generate libraries of genomic DNA fragments containing oxidatively modified bases by using specific monoclonal antibodies to immunoprecipitate enzyme-digested genome DNA. We applied this technique to two different base modifications, 8-hydroxyguanine and 1,N6-propanoadenine (acrotein-Ade), in a ferric nitrilotriacetate-induced murine renal carcinogenesis model. Renal cortical genomic DNA derived from 10- to 12-week-old male C57BL/6 mice, of untreated control or 6 hours after intraperitoneal injection of 3 mg iron/kg ferric nitrilotriacetate, was enzyme digested, immunoprecipitated, cloned, and mapped to each chromosome. The results revealed that distribution of the two modified bases was not random but differed in terms of chromosomes, gene size, and expression, which could be partially explained by chromosomal territory. In the wild-type mice, low GC content areas were more likely to harbor the two modified bases. Knockout of OGG1, a repair enzyme for genomic 8-hydroxyguanine, increased the amounts of acrolein-Ade as determined by quantitative polymerase chain reaction analyses. This versatile technique would introduce a novel research area as a high-throughput screening method for critical genomic loci under oxidative stress.

Murine Wee1 plays a critical role in cell cycle regulation and pre-implantation stages of embryonic development.

Wee1 kinase regulates the G2/M cell cycle checkpoint by phosphorylating and inactivating the mitotic cyclin-dependent kinase 1 (Cdk1). Loss of Wee1 in many systems, including yeast and drosophila, leads to premature mitotic entry. However, the developmental role of Wee1 in mammals remains unclear. In this study, we established Wee1 knockout mice by gene targeting. We found that Wee-/- embryos were defective in the G2/M cell cycle checkpoint induced by gamma-irradiation and died of apoptosis before embryonic (E) day 3.5. To study the function of Wee1 further, we have developed MEF cells in which Wee1 is disrupted by a tamoxifen inducible Cre-LoxP approach. We found that acute deletion of Wee1 resulted in profound growth defects and cell death. Wee1 deficient cells displayed chromosome aneuploidy and DNA damage as revealed by gamma-H2AX foci formation and Chk2 activation. Further studies revealed a conserved mechanism of Wee1 in regulating mitotic entry and the G2/M checkpoint compared with other lower organisms. These data provide in vivo evidence that mammalian Wee1 plays a critical role in maintaining genome integrity and is essential for embryonic survival at the pre-implantation stage of mouse development.

The inhibition and treatment of breast cancer with poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP-1) inhibitors.

BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations are responsible for most familial breast carcinomas. Recent reports carried out in non-cancerous mouse BRCA1- or BRCA2-deficient embryonic stem (ES) cells, and hamster BRCA2-deficient cells have demonstrated that the targeted inhibition of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP-1) kills BRCA mutant cells with high specificity. Although these studies bring hope for BRCA mutation carriers, the effectiveness of PARP-1 inhibitors for breast cancer remains elusive. Here we present the first in vivo demonstration of PARP-1 activity in BRCA1-deficient mammary tumors and describe the effects of PARP-1 inhibitors (AG14361, NU1025, and 3-aminobenzamide) on BRCA1-deficient ES cells, mouse and human breast cancer cells. AG14361 was highly selective for BRCA1-/- ES cells; however, NU1025 and 3-aminobenzamide were relatively non-selective. In allografts of naïve ES BRCA1-/- cells there was either partial or complete remission of tumors. However, in allografts of mouse, BRCA1-/- mammary tumors, there was no tumor regression or remission although a partial inhibition of tumor growth was observed in both the BRCA1-/- and BRCA1+/+ allografts. In human tumor cells, PARP-1 inhibitors showed no difference in vitro in limiting the growth of mammary tumors irrespective of their BRCA1 status. These results suggest that PARP-1 inhibitors may non-specifically inhibit the growth of mammary tumors.

A genome-wide distribution of 8-oxoguanine correlates with the preferred regions for recombination and single nucleotide polymorphism in the human genome.

8-Oxoguanine (8-oxoG), a major spontaneous form of oxidative DNA damage, is considered to be a natural cause of genomic diversity in organisms because of its mutagenic potential. The steady-state level of 8-oxoG in the nuclear genome of a human cell has been estimated to be several residues per 10(6) guanines. In the present study, to clarify the genome-wide distribution of 8-oxoG in the steady state, we performed fluorescence in situ detection of 8-oxoG on human metaphase chromosomes using a monoclonal antibody. Multiple dot-like signals were observed on each metaphase chromosome. We then mapped the position of the signal at megabase resolution referring to the cytogenetically identified chromosomal band, and demonstrated that 8-oxoG is unevenly distributed in the normal human genome and that the distribution pattern is conserved among different individuals. Moreover, we found that regions with a high frequency of recombination and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are preferentially located within chromosomal regions with a high density of 8-oxoG. Our findings suggest that 8-oxoG is one of the main causes of frequent recombinations and SNPs in the human genome, which largely contribute to the genomic diversity in human beings.

Contrasting genome-wide distribution of 8-hydroxyguanine and acrolein-modified adenine during oxidative stress-induced renal carcinogenesis

Oxidative stress is a persistent threat to the genome and is associated with major causes of human mortality, including cancer, atherosclerosis, and aging. Here we established a method to generate libraries of genomic DNA fragments containing oxidatively modified bases by using specific monoclonal antibodies to immunoprecipitate enzyme-digested genome DNA. We applied this technique to two different base modifications, 8-hydroxyguanine and 1,N6-propanoadenine (acrotein-Ade), in a ferric nitrilotriacetate-induced murine renal carcinogenesis model. Renal cortical genomic DNA derived from 10- to 12-week-old male C57BL/6 mice, of untreated control or 6 hours after intraperitoneal injection of 3 mg iron/kg ferric nitrilotriacetate, was enzyme digested, immunoprecipitated, cloned, and mapped to each chromosome. The results revealed that distribution of the two modified bases was not random but differed in terms of chromosomes, gene size, and expression, which could be partially explained by chromosomal territory. In the wild-type mice, low GC content areas were more likely to harbor the two modified bases. Knockout of OGG1, a repair enzyme for genomic 8-hydroxyguanine, increased the amounts of acrolein-Ade as determined by quantitative polymerase chain reaction analyses. This versatile technique would introduce a novel research area as a high-throughput screening method for critical genomic loci under oxidative stress.

8-Oxoguanine formation induced by chronic UVB exposure makes Ogg1 knockout mice susceptible to skin carcinogenesis.

8-Oxoguanine is one of the oxidative DNA damages that can result in stable mutations. The Ogg1 gene encodes the repair enzyme 8-oxoguanine-DNA glycosylase, which removes the oxidized base from DNA. In this study, we investigated the role of 8-oxoguanine in skin carcinogenesis induced by UVB irradiation using Ogg1 knockout mice (C57Bl/6J background). We examined the effect of UVB irradiation on the formation of 8-oxoguanine in epidermal cells using immunostaining and found that the level of 8-oxoguanine in Ogg1 knockout mice 24 hours after UVB irradiation remained high compared with that in wild-type and heterozygous mice. To verify the effect of chronic UVB irradiation on 8-oxoguanine formations in epidermal cells, we irradiated wild-type, heterozygous, and Ogg1 knockout mice with UVB at a dose of 2.5 kJ/m2 thrice a week for 40 weeks. We found that the mean number of tumors in Ogg1 knockout mice was 3.71, which was significantly more than in wild-type and heterozygous mice, being 1.71 and 2.28, respectively. The rate of developing malignant tumors in Ogg1 knockout mice was also significantly higher (88.5%; squamous cell carcinomas, 73.1%; sarcomas, 15.4%) than in wild-type mice (50.0%; squamous cell carcinomas, 41.7%; sarcomas, 8.3%). Moreover, the age of onset of developing skin tumors in Ogg1 knockout mice was earlier than in the other types of mice. These results clearly indicate that oxidative DNA damage induced by sunlight plays an important role in the development of skin cancers.

A functional analysis of the DNA glycosylase activity of mouse MUTYH protein excising 2-hydroxyadenine opposite guanine in DNA.

2-hydroxy-2-deoxyadenosine triphosphate (2-OH-dATP), generated by the oxidation of dATP, can be misincorporated by DNA polymerases opposite guanine in template DNA during DNA replication, thus causing spontaneous mutagenesis. We demonstrated that mouse MUTYH (mMUTYH) has a DNA glycosylase activity excising not only adenine opposite 8-oxoguanine (8-oxoG) but also 2-hydroxyadenine (2-OH-A) opposite guanine, using purified recombinant thioredoxin-mMUTYH fusion protein. mMUTYH formed a stable complex with duplex oligonucleotides containing an adenine:8-oxoG pair, but the binding of mMUTYH to oligonucleotides containing a 2-OH-A:guanine pair was barely detectable, thus suggesting that mMUTYH recognizes and interacts with these two substrates in a different manner which may reflect the difference in the base excision repair process for each substrate. Mutant mMUTYH with G365D amino acid substitution, corresponding to a G382D germline mutation of human MUTYH found in familial adenomatous polyposis patients, almost completely retained its DNA glycosylase activity excising adenine opposite 8-oxoG; however, it possessed 1.5% of the wild-type activity excising 2-OH-A opposite guanine. Our results imply that the reduced repair capacity of the mutant hMUTYH(G382D), which inefficiently excises 2-OH-A opposite guanine, results in an increased occurrence of somatic G:C to T:A transversion mutations in the APC gene as well as tumorigenesis in the colon.

Futile short-patch DNA base excision repair of adenine:8-oxoguanine mispair.

8-oxo-7, 8-dihydrodeoxyguanosine (8-oxo-dG), one of the representative oxidative DNA lesions, frequently mispairs with the incoming dAMP during mammalian DNA replication. Mispaired dA is removed by post-replicative base excision repair (BER) initiated by adenine DNA glycosylase, MYH, creating an apurinic (AP) site. The subsequent mechanism ensuring a dC:8-oxo-dG pair, a substrate for 8-oxoguanine DNA glycosylase (OGG1), remains to be elucidated. At the nucleotide insertion step, none of the mammalian DNA polymerases examined exclusively inserted dC opposite 8-oxo-dG that was located in a gap. AP endonuclease 1, which possesses 3'-->5' exonuclease activity and potentially serves as a proofreader, did not discriminate dA from dC that was located opposite 8-oxo-dG. However, human DNA ligases I and III joined 3'-dA terminus much more efficiently than 3'-dC terminus when paired to 8-oxo-dG. In reconstituted short-patch BER, repair products contained only dA opposite 8-oxo-dG. These results indicate that human DNA ligases discriminate dC from dA and that MYH-initiated short-patch BER is futile and hence this BER must proceed to long-patch repair, even if it is initiated as short-patch repair, through strand displacement synthesis from the ligation-resistant dC terminus to generate the OGG1 substrate, dC:8-oxo-dG pair.

Growth retardation and dyslymphopoiesis accompanied by G2/M arrest in APEX2-null mice.

APEX2/APE2 is a secondary mammalian apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease that associates with proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), and the progression of S phase of the cell cycle is accompanied by its expression. To determine the biologic significance of APEX2, we established APEX2-null mice. These mice were about 80% the size of their wild-type littermates and exhibited a moderate dyshematopoiesis and a relatively severe defect in lymphopoiesis. A significant accumulation of both thymocytes and mitogen-stimulated splenocytes in G(2)/M phase was seen in APEX2-null mice compared with the wild type, indicating that APEX2 is required for proper cell cycle progression of proliferating lymphocytes. Although APEX2-null mice exhibited an attenuated immune response against ovalbumin in comparison with wild-type mice, they produced both antiovalbumin immunoglobulin M (IgM) and IgG, indicating that class switch recombination can occur even in the absence of APEX2.