Differences in removal of acetylaminofluorene and pyrimidine dimers from the DNA of cultured mammalian cells.

The rate and extent of disappearance of two DNA lesions (pyrimidine dimers and covalently bound acetylaminofluorene), both thought to be removed by the so-called wide-patch (approximately 100 nucleotides) repair process, were studied in a variety of cultured mammalian cells. With the exception of mouse cells, dimers were removed more rapidly and extensively than covalently bound acetylaminofluorene. In human cells, for example, about 50% of the dimers were excised from DNA in 1 hr while only 25-50% of the chemically induced lesions were excised from DNA after 48 hr. Surprisingly mouse cells, which remove few dimers, were about as competent as control human fibroblasts at removing acetylaminofluorene lesions; however, xeroderma pigmentosum cells (group D) removed fewer N-acetoxy-2-acetylaminofluorene-induced lesions than control human cells. Our data raise the possibility of separate repair processes for these two types of lesions and suggest that their expression may be under similar genetic control in human cells.