A single acute exposure to a chemotherapeutic agent induces hyper-recombination in distantly descendant cells and in their neighbors

• Published in: Oncogene Vol. 24; no. 32; pp. 5016 - 5025
• Main Authors: RUGO, Rebecca E, ALMEIDA, Karen H, HENDRICKS, Carrie A, JONNALAGADDA, Vidya S, ENGELWARD, Bevin P
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basingstoke Nature Publishing 28-07-2005; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: Animals; Antineoplastic Agents - pharmacology; Biological and medical sciences; Bystander Effect; Cell Communication; Cell physiology; Cell transformation and carcinogenesis. Action of oncogenes and antioncogenes; Chromosomes; DNA damage; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Genomes; Homologous recombination; Mice; Mitomycin - pharmacology; Mitomycin C; Molecular and cellular biology; Mutation; Offspring; Phenotypes; Radiation; Recombination, Genetic - drug effects; Stem Cells - cytology; Stem Cells - drug effects; Stem Cells - physiology; United States > US; Massachusetts; genetic instability; bystander; DNA; Homologous recombination; DNA damage; Genetics; Instability; Exposure; Lesion; persistent; Carcinogenesis
• ISSN: 0950-9232; 1476-5594
• DOI: 10.1038/sj.onc.1208690

Homologous recombination can induce tumorigenic sequence rearrangements. Here, we show that persistent hyper-recombination can be induced following exposure to a bifunctional alkylating agent, mitomycin C (MMC), and that the progeny of exposed cells induce a hyper-recombination phenotype in unexposed neighboring cells. Residual damage cannot be the cause of delayed recombination events, since recombination is observed after drug and template damage are diluted over a million-fold. Furthermore, not only do progeny of MMC-exposed cells induce recombination in unexposed cells (bystanders), but these bystanders can in turn induce recombination in their unexposed neighbors. Thus, a signal to induce homologous recombination can be passed from cell to cell. Although the underlying molecular mechanism is not yet known, these studies reveal that cells suffer consequences of damage long after exposure, and that can signal unexposed neighboring cells to respond similarly. Thus, a single acute exposure to a chemotherapeutic agent can cause long-term changes in genomic stability. If the results of these studies of mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells are generally applicable to many cell types, these results suggest that a relatively small number of cells could potentially induce a tissue-wide increase in the risk of de novo homologous recombination events.