DNA excision repair in permeable human fibroblasts

U.v. irradiation of confluent human fibroblasts activated DNA repair, aspects of which were characterized in the cells after they were penneabilized. Incubation of intact cells for 20 nun between irradiation and harvesting was necessary to obtain a maximum rate of reparative DNA synthesis. Cells harvested immediately after irradiation before repair was in-itiated displayed only a small stimulation of DNA synthesis, indicating that permeable cells have a reduced capacity to recognize pyrimidine dimers and activate repair. The distribu-tion of sizes of DNA strands labeled during 10 min of reparative DNA synthesis resembled that of parental DNA. However, during a 60-min incubation of permeable cells at 37°C, parental DNA and DNA labeled by reparative DNA synthesis were both cleaved to smaller sizes. Cleavage also oc-curred in unirradiated cells, indicating that endogenous nuclease was active during incubation. Repair patches syn-thesized in permeable cells displayed increased sensitivity to digestion by micrococcal nuclease. However, the change in sensitivity during a chase with unlabeled DNA precursors was small, suggesting that reassembly of nucleosome structure at sites of repair was impaired. To examine whether this defi-ciency was due to a preponderance of incomplete or unligated repair patches, 'H-labeled (repaired) DNA was purified, then digested with exonuclease III and nuclease S t to probe for free 3 ' ends and single-stranded regions. About 85 % of the PHJDNA synthesized during a 10-min pulse resisted diges-tion, suggesting that a major fraction of the repair patches that were filled were also ligated. U.v. light-activated DNA synthesis in permeable cells, therefore, appears to represent the continuation of reparative gap-filling at sites of excision repair activated within intact cells. Gap-filling and ligation were comparatively efficient processes in permeable cells, whereas activation of reparative DNA synthesis and reassembly of native chroma tin structure upon completion of repair were not