Mutation Research/DNAging最新文献

The effects of aging and chronic caloric restriction (CR) on the genotoxicity of four carcinogens, representing four different classes of chemicals, in the in vitro rat hepatocyte/DNA repair assay were investigated. Hepatocyte cultures were isolated from young, middel-aged, and old male Fischer (F344) rats which were maintained on either an ad libitum (AL) or a CR diet (60% of AL). Hepatocyte cultures from old AL rats, treated with 2-acetylaminofluorene (2-AAF), aflatoxin B₁ (AFB₁), 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA) and dimethylnitrosamine (DMN), exhibited age-related decreases in DNA repair as compared to young AL rats. By contrast, cultures from young CR rats exhibited significant diet-related decreases in DNA repair with 2-AAF, AFB₁, DMBA and DMN, when compared to results from young AL diet-fed rats. Old CR F344 rat derived cultures exhibited no significant age-related dose-dependent decrease in the DNA repair response with any of the chemicals tested. However, in cultures from old CR rats 10.0 μM AFB₁ produced an age-related decrease in DNA repair from the response observed in young CR rats. When hepatocytes were isolated from Aroclor 1254-induced rats, increases in DNA repair were observed. These data indicate an age- and diet-related decrease in DNA repair and/or DNA damage and suggest that this decrease is due to a decrease in metabolic activation of these carcinogens to genotoxic species.

The non-radical singlet oxygen (¹O₂) and the OH radical (^.OH) are the major damaging oxidative species that can be generated inside cells during normal aerobic metabolism and by processes such as photosensitization. Both reactive oxygen species fulfill essential prerequisites to be a genotoxic agent. Due to their continuous production the represent and ever-present threat to all vital cellular molecules, especially DNA. As might be anticipated from the difference in character between these reactive species (non-radical versus radical) the pattern of DNA modifications caused by singlet oxygen is different from that produced by OH radicals. All cells possess an elaborate defense system against oxidative damage. This paper focuses mainly on the effect of thiols such as glutathione, which are thought to play a role as antioxidants. Under certain conditions thiols can repair chemically, probably by H-donation, some of the DNA damage caused by ^.OH; for instance breaks can be rather easily prevented in this way. This process will complete with fixation of damage by oxygen. However, there is ample evidence that H-atom donation does not always lead to ‘correct’ repair. Moreover under aerobic conditions thiyl peroxy radicals might increase DNA damage. Although the repair/fixation process could be examined in the case of ¹O₂ yet, it could be demonstrated that reactive species can be formed out of the reaction of thios with ¹O₂ capable of enhancing the number of DNA modifications such as 8-oxoguanine and single-strand breaks, probably arising from different pathways. Although it si quite clear that thiols are to some extent excellent antioxidants they possess unexpected properties which, depending on the conditions, can have genotoxic consequences.

The conversion of the covalently closed circular double-stranded supercoiled DNA (pBR322) to a relaxed circle was used to investigate DNA nicking induced by Fe²⁺ and H₂O₂. In our experimental conditions of ionic strength (150 mM NaCl), pH = 7 and temperature (37°C), the dose-response curve for the ferrous iron mediated H₂O₂ dependent DNA nicking is peculiar. For a fixed concentration of ferrous iron (2 μM), the concentration of H₂O₂ producing a maximum extent of DNA nicking was about 10–30 μM. The DNA single-strand breakage decreased with an increase of H₂O₂ concentration. We have investigated the effects of several factors such as the nature of the buffer, ionic strength, temperature and pH. Buffer components leading to the autoxidation of ferrous iron to ferric iron (phosphate) or to the scavenging of reactive oxygen species (Tris) greatly alter the dose-response curve. The H₂O₂ concentrations required for producing the maximum extent of DNA single-strand breaks at 4°C and 56°C were respectively 30 μM and 3 μM. At pH = 10, the pattern of the dose-response curve was totally different.

The data showed that the peculiar dose-response curve for the ferrous iron mediated H₂O₂ dependent DNA nicking greatly depended on the experimental conditions.

Caloric restriction (CR), known to extend median and maximum life spans, improve resistance to carcinogenesis, and significantly retard age-associated degenerative diseases in rodents, was previously reported to modulate levels of indigenous, age-dependent DNA modifications, called I-compounds, in male Brown-Norway (B-N) rats. Since profiles of these adduct-like derivatives are species-, strain-, sex-, and tissue-specific, we explored this apparent CR/I-compound relationship in a comparative study between male B-N and male Fischer 344 (F-344) rats, the latter having a shorter life expectancy and high incidence of renal disease. Control animals were fed NIH-31 diet ad libitum (AL), while the caloric intake of CR animals was limited to 60% of AL, starting at 3.5 months. Liver and kidney DNA from 1, 8, 12, 16, 24 (AL, CR), and 30 (CR only) month old rats was analyzed by ³²P-postlabeling. Corresponding tissues from the two strains yielded similar DNA profiles. Total liver I-compound levels displayed 2.3–4.6-fold age-dependent increases from 1 to 24 months, and kidney values of 24 months were 5.2–8 times higher than those at 1 month. In both strains, I-compound levels of CR animals were higher, up to 2-fold, than in age-matched AL rats. Regression analyses indicated linear relationships between most CR relative adduct labeling values (both total and individual fractions) and age, whereas many AL values exhibited this type of link with log age. These findings confirm that a correlation exists between CR and I-compound levels, and, given the above physiological benefits of CR, indicate that I-compounds represent biomarkers of aging with potential utility in intervention studies.

A histochemical analysis of mitochondrial enzyme activity was carried out in 103 human diaphragmatic skeletal muscles from 49 subjects of different ages, obtained either at the time of abdominal surgery or at necropsy. Evidence of respiratory failure (cytochrome oxidase negativity) was seen in occasional fibres from the fourth decade on with an approximate 10-fold increase between the fourth and ninth decade (0.16% to 2.85%). A similar incidence of mitochondrial failure in CNS neurones to that documented in skeletal muscle could easily account for attrition of 25% of neurones over a 50-year period as reported in the literature. Possible theoretical relationships between morphological markers of mitochondrial failure and cell attrition are explored. While the projections from muscle to neurone are somewhat speculative, it is clear that if a similar extent of mitochondrial pathology exists in the brain to that documented in skeletal muscle, this could easily account for neuronal loss in the ageing brain.

The role of somatic mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) damage in human aging and progressive diseases of oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) was examined by quantitating the accumulation of mtDNA deletions in normal hearts and hearts with coronary atherosclerotic disease. In normal hearts, mtDNA deletions appeared after 40 and subsequently accumulated with age. The common 4977 nucleotide pair (np) deletion (mtDNA⁴⁹⁷⁷) reached a maximum of 0.007%, with the mtDNA⁷⁴³⁶ and mtDNA^10,422 deletions appearing at the same time. In hearts deprived of mitochondrial substrates due to coronary artery disease, the level of the mtDNA⁴⁹⁷⁷ deletion was elevated 7–220-fold over age-matched controls, with the mtDNA⁷⁴³⁶ and mtDNA^10,422 deletions increasing in parallel. This cumulative mtDNA damage was associated with a compensatory 3.5-fold induction of nuclear OXPHOS gene mRNA and regions of ischemic hearts subjected to the greatest work load (left ventricle) showed the greatest accumulation of mtDNA damage and OXPHOS gene induction. These observations support the hypothesis that mtDNA damage does accumulate with age and indicates that respiratory stress greatly elevates mitochondrial damage.

The usefulness of conducting DNA damage and repair studies in a postmitotic tissue like brain is emphasized. We review studies that use brain as a tissue to test the validity of the DNA damage and repair hypothesis of aging. As far as the accumulation of age dependent DNA damage is concerned, the data appear to overwhelmingly support the hypothesis. However, attempts to demonstrate a decline in DNA repair capacity as a function of age are conflicting and equally divided. Possible reasons for this discrepancy are discussed. It is suggested that assessment of the repair capacity of neurons with respect to a specific type of damage in a specific gene might yield more definite answers regarding the role of DNA repair potential in the aging process and as a longevity assurance system.

Oxygen free radicals generated by the interaction of Fe²⁺ and H₂O₂ (Fenton reaction) are capable of reacting with DNA bases, which may induce premutagenic and precarcinogenic lesions. Products formed in DNA by such reactions have been characterized as hydroxylated derivatives of cytosine, thymine, adenine, and guanine and imidazole ring-opened derivatives of adenine and guanine. As shown here by ³²P-postlabeling, incubation of DNA under Fenton reaction conditions gave rise to additional oxidation products in DNA that were characterized as putative ribonucleosides by enzymatic hydrolysis of the oxidized DNA, ³²P-postlabeling, and co-chromatography in multiple systems with authentic markers. Formation of these products in DNA was enhanced by the presence of L-ascorbic acid in the reaction mixtures and their total amounts were similar to those of the major DNA oxidation product, 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine. The ribonucleoside guanosine was also formed in kidney DNA of male rats treated with ferric nitrilotriacetate, a renal carcinogen. It is postulated that ribonucleotides alter conformation and function of DNA and thus their presence in DNA may lead to adverse health effects.

Our electron microscopic study of aging insects and mammals suggests that metazoan senescence is linked to a gradual process of mitochondrial breakdown (and lipofuscin accumulation) in fixed postmitotic cells. This led us to propose in the early 1980s an oxyradical-mitochondrial DNA damage hypothesis, according to which metazoan aging may be caused by mutation, inactivation or loss of the mitochondrial genome (mtDNA) in irreversibly differentiated cells.

This extranuclear somatic gene mutation concept of aging is in agreement with the fact that mtDNA synthesis takes place at the inner mitochondrial membrane near the sites of formation of highly reactive oxygen species and their products. Mitochondrial DNA may be unable to counteract the damage inflicted by those by-products of respiration because, in contrast to the nuclear genome, it lacks excision and recombination repair.

Since mtDNA contains the structural genes for 13 hydrophobic proteins of the respiratory chain and ATP synthase as well as mitochondrial rRNAs and tRNAs, damage to this organellar genome will decrease or prevent the ‘rejuvenation’ of the mitochondria through the process of macromolecular turnover and organelle fission. Thus deprived of the ability to regenerate their mitochondria, the fixed postmitotic cells will sustain a decrease in the number of functional organelles, with resulting decline in ATP production. At higher levels of biological organization, this will lead to a loss in the bioenergetic capacity of cells, with concomitant decreases in ATP dependent protein synthesis and specialized physiological function, thus paving the way for age related degenerative diseases.

The above concept is supported by a wealth of recent observations confirming the genomic instability of mitochondria and suggesting that animal and human aging is accompanied by mtDNA deletions and other types of injury to the mitochondrial genome.

Our hypothesis of mtDNA damage is integrated with the classic concepts of Weissman and Minot in order to provide a preliminary explanation of the evolutionary roots of aging and reconcile the programed and stochastic views of metazoan senescene.