Correlations of DNA damage and repair with nuclear and chromosomal damage in HeLa cells caused by methylnitrosamides.

N-Methyl-N-nitrosourethan induces breaks or alkali-labile sites in cellular DNA, many if not all of which are repaired rapidly. Other DNA lesions are repaired by an excision process. Hydroxyurea and 1-beta-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine cause an accumulation of DNA breaks after N-methyl-N-nitrosourethan treatment, probably by inhibiting the DNA-synthetic (but not the nucleolytic) stage of excision repair. Chromosome damage (fragmentation or attenuation of interphase chromosomes and decondensation and radial rearrangement of metaphase chromosomes) is present soon after treatment with N-methyl-N-nitrosourethan and is not reversed during further incubation. It is apparently associated with the longer-lived DNA lesions, probably those which are removed by excision, and is enhanced by incubation with hydroxyurea and 1-beta-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine. N-Methyl-N-nitrosourethan also inhibits cellular protein and the loss of nucleolar structure. N-Methyl-N-nitrosourea is less potent than N-methyl-N-nitrosourethan in causing DNA or chromosome damage and is less cytotoxic.