DNA replication in methotrexate-treated human lymphoblasts.

Abstract

The rate of DNA synthesis in cultures of human lymphoblasts decreased more than 80% within 30 min after the cells were exposed to methotrexate, a potent inhibitor of dihydrofolate reductase. Despite this rapid initial inhibition, DNA continued to be synthesized for at least an additional 6 h. The mode of this subsequent replication appeared to be semiconservative, as indicated by the buoyant density of 5-bromodeoxyuridine-substituted DNA in alkaline CsCl gradients. The growth rates of DNA chains in cells exposed to methotrexate were determined by sedimentation rate analysis in alkaline sucrose gradients. DNA synthesized during 2-min or 10-min pulses with labeled deoxycitidine in the presence of methotrexate had about the same sedimentation coefficient, 35 S, as controls. When methotrexate-treated cultures were pulse-labeled for 10 min and then chased for various times, DNA fragments of about 80 S accumulated. DNA synthesized in the presence of methotrexate was stable and elongated to bulk-size DNA after methotrexate inhibition of growth was removed by addition of thymidine and deoxycytidine. The data suggest that methotrexate reduces the rate of DNA replication by inhibiting chain initiation independently of chain elongation.