Search PubMedSearch

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “DNA Fragmentation”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Quantitative correlations amongst alkaline DNA fragmentation, DNA covalent binding, mutagenicity in the Ames test and carcinogenicity, for 21 compounds.

21 compounds from different chemical classes were quantitatively compared for their carcinogenic potency according to 4 parameters: (1) potency in inducing covalent binding with DNA in vivo; (2) potency in inducing alkaline DNA fragmentation after treatment in vivo; (3) acute toxicity; (4) mutagenic potency in the Ames test. Establishing well-defined conditions for normalization of the different types of data and determination of the set that had to be submitted to statistical analysis appeared to be a difficult task, for which only compromise solutions were possible. A statistical analysis of the data suggested that all parameters considered were correlated with carcinogenic potency. However, we found that there are about 3 chances to 1 that carcinogenicity is better correlated with DNA covalent binding in vivo than it is to mutagenicity in the Ames test. With due precautions, even acute toxicity could be of predictive value. DNA adducts and DNA fragmentation, both in vivo, appeared to be 2 parameters strongly correlated between them. From a multivariate statistical analysis it appeared that: (1) a significant improvement of quantitative predictability is in principle obtainable with a battery of short-term test; and (2) the improvement is obtainable only if the short-term tests considered, while all correlated with carcinogenicity, are relatively independent amongst themselves.

DNA

Alkaline DNA fragmentation, DNA disentanglement evaluated viscosimetrically and sister chromatid exchanges, after treatment in vivo with nitrofurantoin.

Nitrofurantoin was not positive as a carcinogen in long term assays. In vitro it was positive in some short term tests and negative in others. We have examined Nitrofurantoin for its capability of inducing DNA damage in vivo. With the alkaline elution technique, Nitrofurantoin appeared clearly positive in all the tissues examined (liver, kidney, lung, spleen and bone marrow). In the liver we also observed some cross-linking effect. In bone marrow cells Nitrofurantoin was also clearly positive in terms of sister chromatid exchanges (SCEs) induction. DNA damage in vivo was also examined with a viscosimetric method, more sensitive than alkaline elution. With this method the results were essentially negative, suggesting that the two methods detect different types of damage. In view of its positivity in many organs and in two short term tests in vivo, the carcinogenic potential of Nitrofurantoin should be reconsidered.

Animals

Mapping of early SV40-specific functions by microinjection of different early viral DNA fragments.

DNA sequences within the early simian virus 40 (SV40) genome region responsible for virus-specific tumor (T) and U antigenicity, stimulation of cell DNA synthesis, initiation of late SV40 gene expression and helper function for human adenovirus 2 were confined by experiments using microinjection of different early SV40 DNA fragments. All these early functions were detected in cells supplied with complete early viral information. Cells microinjected with DNA fragments containing about 80, 70 or 60% of thea early SV40 genome were still stained positively when challenged with antibody against T antigen, and the same cells were stimulated for cellular DNA synthesis when about 70% or more of the early viral information was available. DNA sequences at map position 0.67 are required for intracellular early viral transcription.

Antigens, Neoplasm

Discontinuous buffer system for polyacrylamide and agarose gel electrophoresis of DNA fragments.

DNA fragments up to 9 kb in size were stacked and separated by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and those up to 50 kb in size by agarose gel electrophoresis, using a discontinuous buffer system. Polyacrylamide gels at pH 8.9, 2 degrees C, 0.01 M ionic strength, yielded sharp bands with DNA loads of 8 micrograms/cm2 of gel of a mixture of 19 DNA fragments in the size range of 72-23130 bp, while agarose gels at pH 8.5, 25 degrees C, provided well-resolved, unperturbed bands at 0.04 M ionic strength with DNA loads of 1 microgram/cm2 of the same mixture. Note that the ionic strength of the agarose gels is comparable to the conventionally used 0.5 x TBE (Tris-borate-EDTA) buffer, while that successfully applied to polyacrylamide is seven-fold less than the ionic strength of conventionally used 1 x TBE buffer, with a substantially shorter duration of electrophoresis as a result. The application of a discontinuous buffer system to the gel electrophoresis of DNA results in (i) Band identification by Rf, the migration distance relative to a sharply defined "buffer front" (moving boundary). This is sufficiently labor saving, compared to determining absolute mobilities, so as to render practical the expression of bands as numbers, with benefits for data storage, statistical manipulations and physico-chemical exploitation of mobility data. The use of Rf's also circumvents loss of precision in mobility measurement resulting from progressive band spreading of dye bands used as a front. (ii) A uniformly and highly concentrated starting zone, beneficial to resolution, is obtained, without the losses by which separate concentration steps are usually burdened.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Base Composition

Variable stringency hybridization of polymerase chain reaction amplified HIV-1 DNA fragments.

DNA isolated from the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of HIV-1 seropositive individuals was used for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of gag and envelope regions. Eight aliquots of the amplified DNA fragments have been subjected to Southern/dot blot analysis, hybridizing with 32P-labelled-BH10 (HIV-1 strain IIIB) at low stringency. After the filters had been autoradiographed, they were cut so that each hybridized band/dot could be subject to variable stringency washing using various ionic concentrations at a fixed temperature. The filter was reconstructed so that the effect of the variable stringency wash might be visualized following a second exposure to Kodak film. The level of activity for each band/dot was measured by counting the 32P or by densitometry analysis of the photographic record. The results allow a plot to be made of the decrease in bound radioactivity against ionic strength. By comparison with a standard curve obtained for HIV-1 strain IIIB amplified fragments subject to similar hybridization and analysis, an estimation of the degree of nucleotide mismatch relative to the BH10 DNA probe can be obtained. The technique provides a rapid means of characterizing PCR amplified fragments.

DNA, Viral

[X-chromosome inversion in Drosophila melanogaster accompanied by a mosaic-type position effect: an analysis using cloned DNA fragments].

DNA fragments carrying the genes affected by position effect variegation in the In(1LR)pn2a chromosome were revealed. In situ hybridizations demonstrate preservation of specific DNA sequences in the polytene chromosome regions containing the inactivated genes. It was shown that both euchromatic-heterochromatic boundaries in the In(1LR)pn2a chromosome contain the mobile element B104 (roo).

Animals

Bovine leukosis virus: recloning of specific DNA fragments.

DNA fragments generated by Bam HI restriction endonuclease digestion of the provirus of bovine leukosis virus (BLV) was recloned in several plasmids. Recombinant plasmids containing X-region, env gene and a part of pol gene were prepared in pBR322, and in a plasmid containing promotor PR. Fragments env gene and a part of pol gene inserted were also into the pSV2-dhfr plasmid which has the both bacterial and eukaryotic promotors together with the gene for folic acid reductase. The expression possibility of these inserted BLV sequences either in mammalian cells after transfection or in bacteria is now tested.

Cloning, Molecular

Lack of correlation between alkaline DNA fragmentation and DNA covalent binding induced by polychloroethanes after in vivo administration. Problems related to the assessment of a carcinogenic hazard.

The DNA-damaging activity of polychloroethanes was tested in mouse liver by the fluorometric assay of DNA unwinding. With the exception of 1,2-dichloroethane, all components of this chemical class had negative results. The failure of the parameter alkaline "DNA fragmentation" to detect the DNA-damaging activity of polychloroethanes is in sharp contrast with the measurement of DNA covalent binding, another short-term parameter of genotoxicity. Since covalent DNA adducts appear to be quantitatively well correlated with the oncogenic potencies of chloroethanes in liver, the negative results obtained with the present method can perhaps be explained in terms of quality of DNA adducts; these may be incapable of producing DNA breaks or alkali-labile sites detectable as alkaline DNA fragmentation. It is however worth noting that carcinogenicity of chloroethanes appears to depend not only on DNA damaging capability, but also on promoting activity during the carcinogenic process.

Alkalies

Avian myeloblastosis virus reverse transcriptase is easier to use than the Klenow fragment of DNA polymerase I for labeling the 3'-end of a DNA fragment.

The 3'----5' exonuclease activity of the Klenow fragment operates in 3'-end labeling of DNA fragments. In the presence of excess deoxyribonucleoside 5'-triphosphates (dNTPs), the 5'----3' polymerase activity is dominant over the exonuclease activity. However, in the presence of a small amount of dNTPs, the exonuclease activity removed deoxyribonucleoside 5'-monophosphate (dNMP) incorporated in the 3'-end of a DNA strand by the polymerase activity. We found that the radioactivity of incorporated dNMP decreased remarkably in the course of 3'-end labeling by the Klenow fragment. On the other hand avian myeloblastosis virus (AMV) reverse transcriptase also possesses the polymerase activity. The decline of the incorporated radioactivity was not observed, indicating that the enzyme has neither exo- nor endonuclease activities. Furthermore, the level of the incorporated radioactivity was the same as that obtained by the Klenow fragment. We conclude that AMV reverse transcriptase is easier to use than the Klenow fragment for labeling the 3'-end of a DNA fragment.

Affinity Labels

In situ end labeling of fragmented DNA in induced ovarian atresia.

Apoptosis is studied in a model of induced follicular atresia in the ovary of Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) by in situ end labeling of DNA fragments in granulosa cells using two different techniques (incorporation of labeled nucleotides by DNA polymerase I or terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase). The most remarkable observation related to apoptosis in this model is the predominant cytoplasmic localization of labeled DNA fragments, while DNA fragmentation appears to be absent from compacted chromatin masses of apoptotic nuclei and apoptotic nuclear fragments. Unstained apoptotic bodies are present adjacent to stained ones, so that their detection rate on hematoxylin + eosin stained sections is better than on the in situ end-labeled sections. This suggests that DNA fragmentation is a late even or not obligatory in apoptotic granulosa cell death. In contrast to similar studies on atretic granulosa in mammalian models, the process of apoptosis is asynchronous in the granulosal epithelium, with a majority of nuclei with normal chromatin configuration remaining negative for DNA fragmentation. Finally it is shown that the techniques used are not specific for apoptosis, as DNA fragmentation in necrotic granulosa cells is detected as well.

Animals

Induction of DNA fragmentation and DNA repair synthesis in human and rat hepatocytes by diethylstilbestrol.

The synthetic estrogen diethylstilbestrol (DES), a known human carcinogen, was examined for cytotoxicity, and the induction of DNA damage and repair in primary cultures of human and rat hepatocytes. In both species concentrations of DES ranging from 5.6 to 18 micrograms/ml constantly produced reduction of cell viability and DNA fragmentation in dose-related amounts. However, large individual quantitative differences in the sensitivity to the cytotoxic and DNA-damaging activities of DES were observed among cultures derived from the 5 human donors. DES capability of eliciting DNA-excision repair was weak but statistically significant in both human and rat hepatocytes. Taken as a whole these results contribute to support the hypothesis of a genotoxic mechanism in DES-induced carcinogenesis.

Animals

Candida albicans- and Candida stellatoidea-specific DNA fragment.

DNA was isolated from whole cells of Candida albicans and digested with MspI restriction enzyme. In addition to the expected large number of low-molecular-weight DNA pieces resulting from the digestion, multiple high-molecular-weight (greater than 3.0 kilobase pairs) fragments were generated by this enzyme, which cleaves DNA at CCGG sequences. Some of these fragments appeared highly repeated. An MspI fragment which was similar in size to one of the repeat elements (2.9 kilobase pairs) was cloned into the ClaI site of the plasmid vector pBR322 and replicated in a suitable Escherichia coli host strain. The candidal fragment was radiolabeled and used to probe Southern blots of DNA from several Candida species, various other fungi, and mouse and human cells. Only DNA from C. albicans and a strain of Candida stellatoidea was found to contain sequences of significant homology for hybridization. The cloned fragment may possibly be of use as a DNA probe for detection of the presence of C. albicans.

Animals

A quantitative assay for fragmented DNA in apoptotic cells.

Cleavage of cellular chromatin at internucleosomal sites is a characteristic change of DNA integrity in cells undergoing apoptosis. We have developed an assay for quantitation of internucleosomal DNA fragmentation in apoptotic cells. This technique involves purification of cellular DNA, dephosphorylation of the DNA ends, labeling of DNA with 32P at the 5'-end, gel electrophoresis through agarose, and quantitation of the radioactivity in DNA bands. This assay, which is about 1000- to 2000-fold more sensitive than visualization of DNA bands by ethidium staining, allows the detection of DNA fragments at picogram levels. A method for quantitatively determining the number of fragmented DNA strands is also described. Application of this new assay to evaluate the time course of internucleosomal DNA fragmentation was demonstrated in apoptotic cells induced by an anticancer nucleoside analogue.

Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic

A mercury-thiol affinity system for rapid generation of overlapping labeled DNA fragments for DNA sequencing.

We describe an in vitro protocol for quickly generating overlapping terminal-labeled restriction fragments for DNA sequence analysis via the Maxam-Gilbert technique. The protocol involves introducing mercurated nucleotides into one end of a region to be sequenced, partial digestion with several restriction enzymes and terminal-labeling, separation of the mercurated restriction enzymes and terminal-labeling, separation of the mercurated restriction fragments from non-mercurated ones on a thiol column and resolution of the different mercurated fragments on one preparative agarose gel. The protocol was used to determine the nucleotide sequence of a 980 base pair cDNA that contains the coding region for a variable surface glycoprotein of Trypanosoma brucei. It could just as quickly and easily be used to obtain many terminal-labeled overlapping restriction fragments covering a region of several kilobases.

Animals

Distinction of apoptotic and necrotic cell death by in situ labelling of fragmented DNA.

The occurrence and spatial distribution of intracellular DNA fragmentation was investigated by in situ 3' end labelling of DNA breaks in K562 cells treated in such a way to cause either apoptotic or necrotic cell death. The localisation of DNA breaks was examined by confocal laser microscopy and compared with the electron-microscopic appearance of the cells. In addition, the number of cells with fragmented DNA was counted and compared with the number of dead cells, as determined by the nigrosin dye exclusion test. Apoptosis was induced by cultivation of the cells in the presence of actinomycin D. Cells undergoing apoptosis were characterised by massive intracellular DNA fragmentation that was highly ordered into successive steps. Cells in early stages of the apoptotic process had DNA breaks diffusely distributed in the entire nucleus, except the nucleolus, with crescent-like accumulations beyond the nuclear membrane. In the more advanced stages, the nucleus was transformed into many round bodies with intense labelling. Intracellular accumulations of fragmented DNA corresponded exactly to electron-dense chromatin seen in the electron microscope, whereas diffuse DNA breaks had no morphological correlate at the ultrastructural level. In necrosis induced by ionomycin, NaN3, or rapid freezing combined with thawing, no DNA fragmentation occurred at the onset of cell death, but appeared 24 h later. This fragmentation was not characterised by a unique morphology, but represented the breakdown of the chromatin in the configuration remaining after cell death. Therefore, apoptosis is characterised by DNA fragmentation that proceeds in a regular orderly sequence at the beginning of cell death, and can be detected by in situ 3'end labelling of DNA breaks.

Apoptosis

Quantitative predictivity of carcinogenicity for four short-term parameters, evaluated in rat liver: alkaline DNA fragmentation, autoradiographic repair, DNA adducts, preneoplastic nodules.

The possibility of the study of a quantitative correlation between short-term tests and carcinogenicity, instead of a qualitative one, is discussed. Four tests related to the target organ, rat liver, were considered: alkaline DNA fragmentation, DNA repair, DNA adducts and the formation of preneoplastic nodules. All the four tests showed a similar level of correlation with carcinogenic potency (r approximately equal to 0.4). With this level of correlation, the dispersion of the data appeared too large to offer a meaningful degree of quantitative predictivity of carcinogenicity, in reference to a single test. It appeared however, that the use of a battery of two or three independent short-term tests, with the above level of simple correlation, could generate a multiple correlation high enough to be potentially useful for some degree of quantitative predictivity of carcinogenic potency.

Amines

Site-directed insertion of long single-stranded DNA fragments into plasmid DNA.

A new site-directed method for inserting long single-stranded DNA fragments into any region of a duplex vector is described. Its major advantage is independence of the location of the restriction sites. The method involves the assembly of single-stranded DNA fragments by ligation to both ends of the inserted fragments of two cohesive flanks that are complementary to the target region. Short oligonucleotide templates are used to direct the ligation. The resulting fragments, designated further as omega fragments with cohesive flanks, are hybridized with a gapped DNA vector. The heteroduplexes are transformed into Escherichia coli cells without enzymatic filling and sealing of gapped DNA. As a consequence of intracellular repair and heteroduplex resolution, insertion mutants are recovered. To demonstrate the method's efficiency, we inserted a 51-nucleotide synthetic DNA fragment containing a modified glucocorticoid receptor binding site into the region of pBR322, near the transcription starting point of the tet gene. The method we developed makes possible site-directed insertion of synthetic and genome-derived DNA fragments at least 200 nucleotides long.

Base Sequence

Rapid method for purification of plasmid DNA and DNA fragments from DNA linkers using high-performance liquid chromatography on TSK-PW gel.

High-performance size exclusion chromatography (HPSEC) using TSK-G5000 PW in Tri buffer has been found to be a reliable method for the rapid fractionation of DNA ligation products. Plasmid and fragmented phage DNAs were found to elute in less than 2 min with recoveries greater than 98%. Escherichia coli transfection studies, using plasmid DNA that had been subjected to HPSEC column fractionation, showed high transformation efficiencies. MgCl2, a component of the DNA ligation reaction, was found to produce DNA-column support interactions, which resulted in low DNA recoveries. Such interactions were eliminated by chelation with ethylenediaminetetraacetate prior to chromatography.

Bacteriophages