Conversion of excision-repairable DNA lesions to micronuclei within one cell cycle in human lymphocytes

The human lymphocyte micronucleus (MN) assay is relatively insensitive to genotoxic agents that predominantly induce excision-repairable lesions such as adducts and abasic sites. In this study we have explored the possibility of using cytosine arabinoside (ARA) to convert excision-repairable DNA lesions to micronuclei (MN) within one cell cycle. The system consisted of human lymphocytes as target cells, the cytokinesis-block (CB) method for identifying cells that had completed one nuclear division only, and X-rays, methylnitrosourea (MNU), and ultraviolet light (UV) as mutagens. With each mutagen we have observed significant increments in induced MN in the cultures that had also been treated with ARA during G1. The slope of the dose-response curves for induction of MN was increased by a factor of approximately 1.8 for X-rays and 10.3 for UV and significant MNU induction of MN was only achieved in the cultures treated with ARA. Furthermore, a 24-hr gap between mutagen exposure and the start of the assay did not abolish the increased sensitivity in the cultures treated with ARA. These observations suggested that the combined ARA and cytokinesis-block micronucleus (CBMN) method may enhance the detection of exposure to genotoxic agents that predominantly induce excision-repairable lesions.