Seiichi Wada

Irradiation of single mammalian cells with a precise number of energetic heavy ions-Applications of microbeams for studying cellular radiation response

Abstract A single cell irradiation system has been developed for targeting cells individually with a precise number of high-LET heavy ions to elucidate radiobiological effects of single heavy ions and to investigate the interaction of damages produced by separate events. The system has been installed at a high-energy collimated heavy-ion microbeam apparatus under a vertical beam line of the JAERI-Takasaki AVF-cyclotron. Using the heavy ion microbeam apparatus, mammalian cells are irradiated in the atmosphere with a single or precise number of heavy ions, 13.0 MeV/u 20 Ne or 11.5 MeV/u 40 Ar. Positional data of the individual cells are obtained at an off-line microscope before irradiation, then the cells are targeted and irradiated semi-automatically using the on-line microscope of the microbeam apparatus according to the obtained data. The number of ions penetrating the cells attached on the ion track detector CR-39 were counted with a plastic scintillator-photomultiplier tube assembly and a constant fraction discriminator. Immediately after the irradiation, the position and the number of ion tracks traversed the cell was detected with etching of CR-39 from the opposite side of the cell with alkaline-ethanol solution at 37 °C. The growths of the cells were observed individually up to 60 h after irradiation. The continuous observation of the individual cell growth indicated that a single ion traversal of a cell nucleus resulted in complete growth inhibition of the irradiated cells.

Ionising irradiation alters the dynamics of human long interspersed nuclear elements 1 (LINE1) retrotransposon

It is important to identify the mechanism by which ionising irradiation induces various genomic alterations in the progeny of surviving cells. Ionising irradiation activates mobile elements like retrotransposons, although the mechanism of its phenomena consisting of transcriptions and insertions of the products into new sites of the genome remains unclear. In this study, we analysed the effects of sparsely ionising X-rays and densely ionising carbon-ion beams on the activities of a family of active retrotransposons, long interspersed nuclear elements 1 (L1). We used the L1/reporter knock-in human glioma cell line, NP-2/L1RP-enhanced GFP (EGFP), that harbours full-length L1 tagged with EGFP retrotransposition detection cassette (L1RP-EGFP) in the chromosomal DNA. X-rays and carbon-ion beams similarly increased frequencies the transcription from L1RP-EGFP and its retrotransposition. Short-sized de novo L1RP-EGFP insertions with 5-truncation were induced by X-rays, while full-length or long-sized insertions (>5 kb, containing ORF1 and ORF2) were found only in cell clones irradiated by the carbon-ion beams. These data suggest that X-rays and carbon-ion beams induce different length of de novo L1 insertions, respectively. Our findings thus highlight the necessity to investigate the mechanisms of mutations caused by transposable elements by ionising irradiation.

Dependence of the bystander effect for micronucleus formation on dose of heavy-ion radiation in normal human fibroblasts

Ionising radiation-induced bystander effects are well recognised, but its dependence on dose or linear energy transfer (LET) is still a matter of debate. To test this, 49 sites in confluent cultures of AG01522D normal human fibroblasts were targeted with microbeams of carbon (103 keV µm(-1)), neon (375 keV µm(-1)) and argon ions (1260 keV µm(-1)) and evaluated for the bystander-induced formation of micronucleus that is a kind of a chromosome aberration. Targeted exposure to neon and argon ions significantly increased the micronucleus frequency in bystander cells to the similar extent irrespective of the particle numbers per site of 1-6. In contrast, the bystander micronucleus frequency increased with increasing the number of carbon-ion particles in a range between 1 and 3 particles per site and was similar in a range between 3 and 8 particles per site. These results suggest that the bystander effect of heavy ions for micronucleus formation depends on dose.

Effects of the Missense Mutations in Canine BRCA2 on BRC Repeat 3 Functions and Comparative Analyses between Canine and Human BRC Repeat 3

Mammary tumors are the most common tumor type in both human and canine females. Mutations in the breast cancer susceptibility gene, BRCA2, have been found in most cases of inherited human breast cancer. Similarly, the canine BRCA2 gene locus has been associated with mammary tumors in female dogs. However, deleterious mutations in canine BRCA2 have not been reported, thus far. The BRCA2 protein is involved in homologous recombination repair via its interaction with RAD51 recombinase, an interaction mediated by 8 BRC repeats. These repeats are 26-amino acid, conserved motifs in mammalian BRCA2. Previous structural analyses of cancer-associated mutations affecting the BRC repeats have shown that the weakening of RAD51s affinity for even 1 repeat is sufficient to increase breast cancer susceptibility. In this study, we focused on 2 previously reported canine BRCA2 mutations (T1425P and K1435R) in BRC repeat 3 (BRC3), derived from mammary tumor samples. These mutations affected the interaction of canine BRC3 with RAD51, and were considered deleterious. Two BRC3 mutations (K1440R and K1440E), reported in human breast cancer patients, occur at amino acids corresponding to those of the K1435R mutation in dogs. These mutations affected the interaction of canine BRC3 with RAD51, and may also be considered deleterious. The two BRC3 mutations and a substitution (T1430P), corresponding to T1425P in canine BRCA2, were examined for their effects on human BRC3 function and the results were compared between species. The corresponding mutations and the substitution showed similar results in both human and canine BRC3. Therefore, canine BRCA2 may be a good model for studying human breast cancer caused by BRCA2 mutations.

Detection of DNA damage induced by heavy ion irradiation in the individual cells with comet assay

Investigating the biological effects of high-LET heavy ion irradiation at low fluence is important to evaluate the risk of charged particles. Especially it is important to detect radiation damage induced by the precise number of heavy ions in the individual cells. Thus we studied the relationship between the number of ions traversing the cell and DNA damage produced by the ion irradiation. We applied comet assay to measure the DNA damage in the individual cells. Cells attached on the ion track detector CR-39 were irradiated with ion beams at TIARA, JAERI-Takasaki. After irradiation, the cells were stained with ethidium bromide and the opposite side of the CR-39 was etched. We observed that the heavy ions with higher LET values induced the heavier DNA damage. The result indicated that the amount of DNA damage induced by one particle increased with the LET values of the heavy ions.

Reduced canine BRCA2 expression levels in mammary gland tumors

BackgroundMammary tumors are the most common tumor type in intact female dogs. Recently, the breast cancer 2 early onset (BRCA2) gene was proposed to be associated with tumorigenesis in dogs. The expression level of BRCA2 is important for its DNA repair function in mammalian cells, and its expression level is linked to tumorigenesis in mammary tissue. However, the expression of canine BRCA2 in mammary tumors is unclear.ResultsBRCA2 mRNA levels were compared between seven mammary gland samples and seventeen mammary tumor samples isolated from dogs. The expression level of canine BRCA2 in mammary tumor samples was lower than levels in mammary gland samples. We attempted to identify why the BRCA2 expression level was decreased in mammary tumor samples by promoter sequencing analysis; however, we did not find any mutations in the canine BRCA2 promoter that altered BRCA2 transcription levels. We did detect two types of BRCA2 splice variants in 8 mammary tumor samples. One of the variants induced a frame-shift mutation that could lead to nonsense-mediated mRNA decay, a ubiquitous cellular mechanism that eliminates mRNA containing a premature termination codon.ConclusionsReduced expression of canine BRCA2 mRNA in mammary tumor samples is a possible mechanism to explain mammary tumor development in dogs. One possible reason for reduced BRCA2 mRNA levels in these tumor samples was nonsense-mediated mRNA decay, not mutations in the BRCA2 promoter region. While it remains unclear why canine BRCA2 expression levels are reduced in mammary tumor samples, this study found that the expression level of BRCA2 was associated with canine mammary tumorigenesis.