Mutagenic effect of BUdR in diploid human fibroblasts

It has only recently been possible to demonstrate the expected mutagenic effect of 5-bromodeoxyuridine (BUdR) in heteroploid hamster cells in culture. We have now extended this observation to diploid human fibroblasts utilizing techniques adapted from the work of Albertini and DeMars on X-ray mutagenesis at the hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HGPRT) locus in these cells. In four separate experiments, fibroblasts from a female donor were exposed to 500 micrograms/ml ethylmethane sulfonate (EMS) or 3 micrograms/ml BUdR yielding survivals of 9% and 5%, respectively. After a 6-day expression period, survivors were plated in selection medium containing 0.3 micrograms/ml 8-azaguanine (8-AG). After 3-5 weeks, azaguanine-resistant colonies were isolated for characterization or stained for counting. The average spontaneous mutation rate/cell/generation was 0.6.10(-6). The average induced mutation rates for EMS and BUdR were 7.8.10(-6) and 6.3.10(-6)/cell/generation, respectively. Similar results were obtained in two experiments with an additional fibroblast line. Mutant colonies isolated following BUdR treatment demonstrated from 1.4 to 61.5% of the HGPRT activity of the parental line and showed at least 8% Barr bodies, excluding the possibility of contamination by Lesch-Nyhan cells. This demonstration of a BUdR effect comparable to that of an alkylating agent or X-irradiation opens the study of mutation due to base-analog substitution in diploid human cells.