| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
Advances in Brief |
Departments of Therapeutic Radiology, Genetics, and Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8040
| ABSTRACT |
|---|
|
|
|---|
| Introduction |
|---|
|
|
|---|
In addition to the endogenous genetic factors, growing evidence also suggests that the exogenous environment within solid tumors itself may be mutagenic and constitute a significant source of genetic instability (9) . The tumor microenvironment is characterized by regions of fluctuating and chronic hypoxia, low pH, and nutrient deprivation (10 , 11) . This microenvironmental heterogeneity develops very early in the growth of solid tumors due to inadequate blood supply (10) . Both in vivo and in vitro data demonstrate that exposure of cells to these adverse conditions can lead to genome alterations. For example, several groups observed an increased frequency of drug resistance among cells transiently exposed to hypoxia or low pH (12, 13, 14) , effects attributed to amplification at loci encoding the drug resistance genes. Besides large chromosomal changes, small deletions and point mutations have also been found to arise in cells treated with hypoxia (15) . Furthermore, hypoxia, acidosis, and glucose starvation all appear to enhance the metastatic potential of tumor cells, a process that may be associated with induced genetic changes (14 , 16, 17, 18) .
In vivo studies have taken advantage of transformed cell
lines that are capable of forming tumors in immune-deficient mice. We
previously established an animal model in which a mouse cell line
carrying a chromosomally based
supF phage shuttle vector was
implanted s.c. into the flanks of nude mice to generate tumors
(15)
. We found that the frequency of supF
reporter gene mutations arising in cells within the tumors was 5-fold
higher than that in otherwise identical cells grown in culture. In
another study also using tumor xenografts, Wilkinson et al.
(19)
reported that the mutation frequency in the
hprt gene in cells explanted from experimental tumors was
severalfold higher than that found in cells grown in culture for an
equivalent period of time.
However, the mechanism by which the tumor microenvironment induces genetic instability has not been established. We previously proposed that the abnormal physiology accompanying a developing tumor may play a role (15) . Indeed, several features of the tumor microenvironment have been shown to cause severe disturbances in cell metabolism and function. The effects of hypoxia have been most extensively characterized: after initiation of hypoxia, cellular ATP levels decrease rapidly (20) ; G1-phase cell cycle checkpoints become activated (21) ; and DNA replication is inhibited (20 , 22) . In addition, protein synthesis decreases, and protein degradation increases, with relatively enhanced synthesis of oxygen-related proteins (20 , 23 , 24) . Unphysiological pH can alter the structure and function of cellular proteins, including DNA polymerases (25 , 26) . In addition, it was demonstrated that cells deprived of serum exhibit higher levels of intracellular oxidants compared with the levels in control cells (27) . Hence, it is conceivable that such profound perturbations in cell physiology may lead to conditions that either cause increased spontaneous damage to DNA or inhibit DNA repair processes.
To elucidate the mechanisms by which the tumor microenvironment might contribute to genetic instability, we tested whether the adverse conditions found in solid tumors can alter the capacity of the cells to repair DNA damage. Using UV-induced damage as a probe, we examined the effects of hypoxia and low pH on the NER3 pathway. We report here that cells exposed to hypoxia at pH 6.5 exhibit a diminished capacity to reactivate UV-damaged plasmids compared with control cells. Consistent with this reduction in repair, we find that cells incubated under such conditions are hypermutable to UV damage.
| Materials and Methods |
|---|
|
|
|---|
supFG1 shuttle vector DNA (28)
. The cells were
maintained in DMEM supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (Life
Technologies, Inc., Gaithersburg, MD) at 37°C in a humidified
incubator with 5% CO2.
Low pH Medium.
Culture medium was acidified by supplementing the regular medium with
25 mM HEPES and 25 mM
4-morpholinepropanesulfonic acid (Sigma, St. Louis, MO). The
acidity of the medium was adjusted to a final pH of 6.5 with 1
N NaOH.
Hypoxia.
Hypoxic culture conditions were established as described previously
(15)
, using a continuous flow of a mixture of 95%
N2 and 5% CO2 gas
certified to less than 10 ppm O2 (Airgas
Northeast, Cheshire, CT).
HCR Assay.
Plasmid pGL3-luciferase (Promega, Madison, WI), which encodes a
luciferase gene driven by the SV40 promoter, was damaged in
vitro by exposure to 5000 J/m2 of UVC
irradiation. A ß-galactosidase-expressing plasmid, pSV-ßGal
(Promega), was used as an internal control to normalize for
transfection efficiency.
3340 mouse fibroblasts were plated in triplicate in 60-mm dishes at a density of 3 x 105 cells/dish. The next day, they were transfected with 2 µg of either intact or damaged pGL3-luciferase along with 0.5 µg of pSV-ßGal using FuGENE 6 transfection reagent, as directed by the manufacturer (Boehringer Mannheim, Indianapolis, IN). Three h later, medium containing the transfection mixture was removed. Half of the dishes were replenished with fresh medium and incubated under standard conditions. The other half received low pH medium (pH 6.5) and were placed in a hypoxic incubator. Approximately 24 h after transfection, cells in each dish were lysed with 600 µl of Reporter Lysis Buffer (Promega). Transient expression of luciferase and ßgalactosidase was determined by mixing 20 µl of cell extract with 100 µl of Luciferase Assay Reagent (Promega) or 300 µl of Galacto-Star Reaction Buffer (Tropix Inc., Bedford, MA) and reading the light emission on a luminometer.
Values of luciferase expression were normalized to the ß-galactosidase control and averaged over the triplicates. The repair efficiency (i.e., reactivation of the damaged plasmids by the host cells) for each condition was determined as the percentage of the luciferase activity expressed from the damaged plasmid relative to that from the undamaged plasmid. SD was calculated according to the Taylor series expansion formula.
UV Mutagenesis Assay.
3340 cells (8 x 105 cells/100-mm
dish) were exposed to UV light at a dose of 3
J/m2 using a 254 nm germicidal lamp. Afterward,
cells were either incubated under standard culture conditions (normoxia
and pH 7.4) or exposed to hypoxia at pH 6.5 for 24 h. Both sets of
cells were then maintained in standard culture conditions, and high
molecular weight DNA was isolated from the cells 1 week later. Lambda
shuttle vector rescue from the chromosomal DNA of the mouse 3340 cells
and detection and characterization of mutations in the
supFG1 reporter gene were carried out as described
previously (29)
.
| Results |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Under standard conditions (normoxia and pH 7.4), luciferase activity
expressed from the damaged plasmid was about 60% (68% in experiment 1
and 55% in experiment 2) of that expressed from the undamaged plasmid.
This indicates that a substantial amount of the UV-generated damage
present on the plasmid DNA was repaired by the host cells by the time
of assay. However, when the cells were placed under hypoxic and low-pH
conditions after transfection, the level of luciferase expression from
the damaged plasmid relative to the undamaged control was only in the
range of 30% (26% in experiment 1 and 35% in experiment 2),
significantly reduced compared with the normal conditions (Fig. 1
). We also performed the HCR assay on a human cell line, RCneo, and
observed a similar decrease in the capacity of the cells to reactivate
damaged plasmid under hypoxia and low-pH conditions (data not shown).
These data suggest that cellular repair functions, at least with
respect to the NER pathway, are less efficient under the suboptimal
hypoxic and acidic culture conditions.
|
|
|
|
| Discussion |
|---|
|
|
|---|
As a corollary to this observation, we examined the effect of hypoxia and low pH on mutagenesis. We found that cells exposed to hypoxia and low pH for 24 h in the immediate postirradiation period showed a 2-fold increase in mutation frequency compared with unirradiated cells under the same growth conditions. Because the hypoxia and low pH treatment elevated the mutation frequency even in the unirradiated cells [a result confirming our previous work (15) ], the fold difference between the irradiated and unirradiated samples is about the same as that seen in cells maintained under standard conditions. However, the absolute increase in mutations due to UV is more substantial in the hypoxia/pH 6.5-treated samples. By subtracting the mutation frequencies seen in the unirradiated cells under the same growth conditions, it was found that the amount of mutagenesis attributable to UV in cells placed under hypoxia at pH 6.5 was 30.4 x 10-5, almost double the mutagenic effect of UV on cells maintained under standard conditions (16.2 x 10-5). This difference constitutes a state of hypermutability in cells that are in hypoxic and acidic conditions. Taken together, the above results provide a new mechanism by which the conditions of the tumor microenvironment may promote genetic instability: diminished DNA repair and hypermutability to DNA damage.
In our experiments, we used UV as a model mutagen to introduce damage both on a plasmid and on cellular genomic DNA. Although UV irradiation is not expected to be a physiological challenge for cells within a solid tumor, it is useful as a tool to probe repair and mutagenesis under selected conditions. UV-induced lesions, primarily thymine dimers and 6-4 photoproducts, are processed via the NER pathway, and thus our findings suggesting diminished DNA repair bear directly on that repair pathway. By extrapolation, however, it is likely that other repair pathways, such as base excision repair, double-strand break repair, and mismatch repair, may also be altered by the suboptimal cellular conditions imposed by hypoxia and low pH, although this remains to be determined.
In the NER pathway, there are at least 16 polypeptides involved in damage recognition, 3' and 5' dual incision, and various other aspects of the repair process (33) . Our finding that cells exposed to hypoxia at pH 6.5 exhibit a decreased capacity to repair lesions normally subject to NER suggests that the hypoxic and acidic environment could impair some or all of the proteins involved in the cellular NER pathway.
It remains unclear exactly how the repair proteins might be affected by these conditions. One possibility is that the levels of certain proteins involved in the NER may be reduced. Whereas hypoxia can induce the expression of some oxygen-related proteins (20) , it generally has a negative impact on protein metabolism. It has been found to both decrease protein synthesis and accelerate protein degradation (23 , 24) . However, immunoblot analyses did not reveal changes in the levels of selected NER proteins after 24 h of hypoxia at pH 6.5 (XPA and XPD; data not shown).
Another possibility is that the unfavorable environment may functionally inactivate or impair the activity of many proteins, including those critical for NER. It has been reported that the level of ATP drops rapidly after initiation of hypoxia (20) and, as a result, may reduce the activity of repair enzymes. An unphysiological pH is also likely to disturb proper protein conformation and folding and disrupt protein-protein interactions, further compromising the ability of cells to perform repair functions when challenged with DNA damage.
Our experiment was carried out transiently in culture with a pH of 6.5
and an oxygen tension of
10 ppm. It is important to note that such
in vitro conditions do not exactly mimic the complex and
dynamic microenvironment in a developing tumor. Cells growing in a
solid tumor can be transiently or chronically hypoxic (34)
and can be deprived of critical nutrients (35)
. Oxygen
tension (15)
as well as acidity (36)
also
varies spatially and temporally. In this regard, it is interesting to
note that we saw only a small decrease in repair in cells treated with
hypoxia alone (data not shown). However, when cells were exposed to a
combination of hypoxia and low pH, larger differences were observed.
This is in line with several studies reporting a synergistic effect of
low oxygen and low pH on cellular energy metabolism and cell survival
(37
, 38)
. Hence, it is not unreasonable to hypothesize
that in solid tumors in vivo, where various environmental
factors may interact with one another, the influence of hypoxia and low
pH on the NER pathway may be even more important than either factor
alone.
Consistent with a diminished repair capacity, we found that exposure of cells to hypoxia at pH 6.5 caused an elevation in UV-induced mutagenesis. Sequencing analysis revealed that the majority of the mutations were consistent with the typical pattern of UV-induced mutagenesis in mammalian cells, with mostly C-to-T transitions. Hence, whereas we detected a quantitative increase in UV mutagenesis due to hypoxia and low pH, qualitatively, the types of induced mutations arising in hypoxic and acidic cells were found to be similar to those seen in cells under standard conditions.
Most UV-induced mutations are thought to arise from trans-lesion bypass synthesis across unrepaired damage (39) . Hence, the increase in UV mutation frequency could theoretically arise as a result of either diminished repair or increased error-prone trans-lesion synthesis. We favor the former possibility, in which the observed hypermutability is due to a reduced capacity of cells to remove DNA damage under hypoxia and low pH, because that is consistent with our plasmid reactivation assay data. At this point, however, we cannot completely rule out some contribution of altered DNA polymerase activity, except to note that the pattern of mutations does not point to any unusual or novel bypass polymerase activity.
The work presented here supports the concept that the microenvironment within a solid tumor may be an important source of genetic instability (9 , 15) . Specifically, our results implicate diminished DNA repair as a possible mechanism underlying this instability. In addition, the concept that the conditions of the tumor microenvironment can inhibit DNA repair and consequently promote genetic instability provides a basis for understanding the observation that very hypoxic tumors follow a more aggressive clinical course (17 , 40, 41, 42) .
| Acknowledgments |
|---|
| FOOTNOTES |
|---|
1 Supported by American Cancer Society Grant VM
189. J. Y. was supported by an M.D./Ph.D. fellowship from the Yale
University School of Medicine. ![]()
2 To whom requests for reprints should be
addressed, at Department of Therapeutic Radiology, Yale University
School of Medicine, P. O. Box 208040, New Haven, CT 06520-8040. Phone:
(203) 737-2788; Fax: (203) 737-2630; E-mail: peter.glazer{at}yale.edu ![]()
3 The abbreviations used are: NER, nucleotide
excision repair; HCR, host cell reactivation. ![]()
Received 5/ 8/00. Accepted 6/30/00.
| REFERENCES |
|---|
|
|
|---|
and HIV-1 reverse transcriptase: effect of reaction pH. Nucleic Acids Res., 21: 5212-5220, 1993.
G:C transversions in X-irradiated mouse cells. Carcinogenesis (Lond.), 16: 83-88, 1995.
. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 95: 6876-6880, 1998.This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
A. M. Niemela, P. Hynninen, J.-P. Mecklin, T. Kuopio, A. Kokko, L. Aaltonen, A.-K. Parkkila, S. Pastorekova, J. Pastorek, A. Waheed, et al. Carbonic Anhydrase IX Is Highly Expressed in Hereditary Nonpolyposis Colorectal Cancer Cancer Epidemiol. Biomarkers Prev., September 1, 2007; 16(9): 1760 - 1766. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
Y. Shimoyama, Y. Akihara, D. Kirat, H. Iwano, K. Hirayama, Y. Kagawa, T. Ohmachi, K. Matsuda, M. Okamoto, T. Kadosawa, et al. Expression of Monocarboxylate Transporter 1 in Oral and Ocular Canine Melanocytic Tumors Vet. Pathol., July 1, 2007; 44(4): 449 - 457. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
R. S. Bindra, S. L. Gibson, A. Meng, U. Westermark, M. Jasin, A. J. Pierce, R. G. Bristow, M. K. Classon, and P. M. Glazer Hypoxia-Induced Down-regulation of BRCA1 Expression by E2Fs Cancer Res., December 15, 2005; 65(24): 11597 - 11604. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
S. L. Gibson, R. S. Bindra, and P. M. Glazer Hypoxia-Induced Phosphorylation of Chk2 in an Ataxia Telangiectasia Mutated-Dependent Manner Cancer Res., December 1, 2005; 65(23): 10734 - 10741. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
S. Shahrzad, L. Quayle, C. Stone, C. Plumb, S. Shirasawa, J. W. Rak, and B. L. Coomber Ischemia-Induced K-ras Mutations in Human Colorectal Cancer Cells: Role of Microenvironmental Regulation of MSH2 Expression Cancer Res., September 15, 2005; 65(18): 8134 - 8141. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
A. Mayer, M. Hockel, A. Wree, and P. Vaupel Microregional Expression of Glucose Transporter-1 and Oxygenation Status: Lack of Correlation in Locally Advanced Cervical Cancers Clin. Cancer Res., April 1, 2005; 11(7): 2768 - 2773. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
E. Obermueller, S. Vosseler, N. E. Fusenig, and M. M. Mueller Cooperative Autocrine and Paracrine Functions of Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor and Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor in the Progression of Skin Carcinoma Cells Cancer Res., November 1, 2004; 64(21): 7801 - 7812. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
P. Vaupel The Role of Hypoxia-Induced Factors in Tumor Progression Oncologist, November 1, 2004; 9(suppl_5): 10 - 17. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
R. S. Bindra, P. J. Schaffer, A. Meng, J. Woo, K. Maseide, M. E. Roth, P. Lizardi, D. W. Hedley, R. G. Bristow, and P. M. Glazer Down-Regulation of Rad51 and Decreased Homologous Recombination in Hypoxic Cancer Cells Mol. Cell. Biol., October 1, 2004; 24(19): 8504 - 8518. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
N. Kokkonen, A. Rivinoja, A. Kauppila, M. Suokas, I. Kellokumpu, and S. Kellokumpu Defective Acidification of Intracellular Organelles Results in Aberrant Secretion of Cathepsin D in Cancer Cells J. Biol. Chem., September 17, 2004; 279(38): 39982 - 39988. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
J. Okami, D. M. Simeone, and C. D. Logsdon Silencing of the Hypoxia-Inducible Cell Death Protein BNIP3 in Pancreatic Cancer Cancer Res., August 1, 2004; 64(15): 5338 - 5346. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
V. T. Mihaylova, R. S. Bindra, J. Yuan, D. Campisi, L. Narayanan, R. Jensen, F. Giordano, R. S. Johnson, S. Rockwell, and P. M. Glazer Decreased Expression of the DNA Mismatch Repair Gene Mlh1 under Hypoxic Stress in Mammalian Cells Mol. Cell. Biol., May 1, 2003; 23(9): 3265 - 3273. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
F. A. Rogers, K. M. Vasquez, M. Egholm, and P. M. Glazer Site-directed recombination via bifunctional PNA-DNA conjugates PNAS, December 24, 2002; 99(26): 16695 - 16700. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
L. B. Harrison, M. Chadha, R. J. Hill, K. Hu, and D. Shasha Impact of Tumor Hypoxia and Anemia on Radiation Therapy Outcomes Oncologist, December 1, 2002; 7(6): 492 - 508. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
A. Kondo, R. Safaei, M. Mishima, H. Niedner, X. Lin, and S. B. Howell Hypoxia-induced Enrichment and Mutagenesis of Cells That Have Lost DNA Mismatch Repair Cancer Res., October 1, 2001; 61(20): 7603 - 7607. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
M. M. Mueller, W. Peter, M. Mappes, A. Huelsen, H. Steinbauer, P. Boukamp, M. Vaccariello, J. Garlick, and N. E. Fusenig Tumor Progression of Skin Carcinoma Cells in Vivo Promoted by Clonal Selection, Mutagenesis, and Autocrine Growth Regulation by Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor and Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor Am. J. Pathol., October 1, 2001; 159(4): 1567 - 1579. [Abstract] [Full Text] |
||||
![]() |
A. Lal, H. Peters, B. St. Croix, Z. A. Haroon, M. W. Dewhirst, R. L. Strausberg, J. H. A. M. Kaanders, A. J. van der Kogel, and G. J. Riggins Transcriptional Response to Hypoxia in Human Tumors J Natl Cancer Inst, September 5, 2001; 93(17): 1337 - 1343. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
D. C. Malins, P. M. Johnson, T. M. Wheeler, E. A. Barker, N. L. Polissar, and M. A. Vinson Age-related Radical-induced DNA Damage Is Linked to Prostate Cancer Cancer Res., August 1, 2001; 61(16): 6025 - 6028. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
| Cancer Research | Clinical Cancer Research |
| Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention | Molecular Cancer Therapeutics |
| Molecular Cancer Research | Cancer Prevention Research |
| Cancer Prevention Journals Portal | Cancer Reviews Online |
| Annual Meeting Education Book | Meeting Abstracts Online |