Age-related changes of the H1 and H1(0) histone variants in murine tissues.

The relative proportion of the histone H1(0) which is present in chromatin of nondividing and terminally differentiated cells is shown to increase with age. CNBr nonenzymatic cleavage and SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of H1(0) extracted from liver chromatin of young and old mice and from age-related hepatocarcinomas showed that H1(0) consists of two variants, one contains methionine the other is methionine-free. The ratio between these two H1(0) variants also changes with age. The relative amounts of specific minor H1 and H1(0) histone fractions which are more loosely bound in chromatin and are extractable with 0.35 M NaCl, together with the HMG nonhistone proteins decrease in ageing mouse tissues. The age-related alteration of the ratio between H1(0) variants probably represents the chromatin repair process, whereas the age-related replacement of H1A and H1B subfractions by H1(0) histones may reflect the continuing process of differentiation.