Preferential sites of early DNA cleavage in apoptosis and the pathway of nuclear damage.

We have tested the specific hypothesis that the pathway of nuclear collapse in apoptosis is governed by the early attack on active chromatin at spatially restricted nuclear sites. Cell death in PC12 pheochromocytoma cells deprived of serum growth factors, in HL-60 leukemic cells treated with inhibitors of protein or RNA biosynthesis, and in U937 histiocytic lymphoma cells exposed to the cytokine tumor necrosis factor alpha showed a common mechanism in the targeting of DNA for degradation. An incorporation assay with labeled nucleotide revealed an early selective nicking in peripheral nuclear chromatin with concomitant diminution in the amount of immunoreactive lamin B protein. This was followed by a phase of more extensive cleavages, continued nuclear protein loss, chromatin collapse, and fragmentation of nuclei. The spatial restriction of early cleavages is similar to the nicking obtained by the application of exogenous DNase I to fixed nuclei of normal cells and to that obtained in the activation of the endogenous endonuclease of liver nuclei by Ca2+. These similarities suggest that, in apoptosis, activation of an endonuclease preferentially recognizing a specific chromatin configuration, such as that of active (DNase I-sensitive) genes, underlies the early spatial demarcation of cleavages.