Importance of phospholipids to nitrosourea interactions with the nuclear envelope and associated nucleic acids

Nuclease digestion of triton isolated HeLa cell nuclei has resulted in nuclear envelopes containing less than 10% of the nuclear macromolecule. Alkylation and carbamoylation of the nuclear envelope (NE) fraction by chloroethylnitrosoureas (HNU) was disproportionately high (approximately 35% of total nuclear alkylation and approximately 55% carbamoylation) suggesting that the nucleophilic species in the envelope were preferential targets for drug binding. Digestion of the envelope fraction with phospholipase C (PLC), followed by buoyant density gradient separation in Percoll (70%):0.15 M NaCl (30%), demonstrated that some envelope:nucleic acid attachments were destabilized as a result of phospholipid cleavage. In addition, the buoyant density of HNU-modified NE macromolecules was slightly altered by PLC digestion, suggesting that cleavage of polar phospholipids did not completely destabilize the chloroethylated products from the nuclear envelope.