Deficiency of UV-induced excision repair in human thymocytes

The capacity of human thymocytes and of differentiated lymphocytes circulating in peripheral blood to perform unscheduled DNA synthesis (a measure of nucleotide excision repair) after UV irradiation was measured by radioautographic analysis. Only 4% of immature T lymphocytes, but 68% of circulating lymphocytes exhibited unscheduled DNA synthesis. When UV sensitivity of peripheral blood lymphocytes and thymocytes from the same donor were compared, the thymocytes, in each case, were significantly more UV sensitive than were the circulating lymphocytes. Peripheral blood lymphocytes from subjects undergoing halothane and morphine anesthesia during surgery showed 56% less excision repair capacity than those from unanesthetized donors. The difference occurred in the number of cells capable of repair rather than in the extent of repair synthesis per cell. Ultraviolet-induced unscheduled DNA synthesis occurred in only 3% of the thymocytes removed from rats killed by cervical dislocation. Therefore, the deficiency of excision repair was observed in rat thymocytes which had not been affected by anesthesia or surgical trauma. Since the thymus contains more than 90% immature T-cells, our results indicate that immature T-cells are deficient in nucleotide excision repair whereas the majority of mature peripheral blood lymphocytes exhibit such repair.