Comparison of DNA repair in human cell lines

Abstract

The study of genome repair dynamics and their variance among cell lines refines our understanding of cancer and may lead to better gene‐targeting therapies. Our study compares the genotoxic repair rates of two cell types: the immortal cervical cancer line HeLa and human dermal fibroblasts, or HDFa. We are employing the comet assay, a single cell gel electrophoresis technique, to quantify genetic damage after subjecting cells to varying doses of UV and X‐ray radiation. To form a comparison of repair rates between the cell lines, we are tracking levels of damage at specific increments of recovery time.HeLa exhibits greater genome instability than HDFa, presumably due to flawed DNA repair mechanisms. As such, the expectation is that the cell lines will show differing repair rates; however, prior observation has suggested the opposite. Our results demonstrate a similar repair dynamics between these two cell lines following X‐ray and UV‐C light exposures. An investigation into gene‐specific repair might shed light on specifics of nucleotide and base excision repair pathways in HeLa and HDFa cells.Support or Funding Information1) Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute Of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Numbers UL1GM118991, TL4GM118992, or RL5GM118990. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. UA is an AA/EO employer and educational institution and prohibits illegal discrimination against any individual: www.alaska.edu/titleIXcompliance/nondiscrimination.2) NASA EPSCoR, NNH15ZHA003CThis abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.