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In Vivo Alkaline Comet Assay and Enzyme-modified Alkaline Comet Assay for Measuring DNA Strand Breaks and Oxidative DNA Damage in Rat Liver
Published on: May 4, 2016
Copper cytotoxicity impairs DNA synthesis but not protein phosphorylation upon growth stimulation in LEC mutant rat
J K Kim1, T Yamada, K Matsumoto
1Institute for Animal Experimentation, University of Tokushima School of Medicine, Japan.
Abstract:
Long-Evans Cinnamon (LEC) mutant rat, which possesses a genetic defect of the block of copper exclusion pathway in the hepatocytes, is a good model for studying the mechanism of cellular copper toxicity. We have examined effects of copper toxicity on DNA synthesis and protein phosphorylation upon growth stimulation by treating LEC rat primary-cultured hepatocytes with EGF and insulin. The proportion of DNA-synthesizing S-phase cells in LEC rat markedly decreased when compared to that of normal rat. However, the electrophoretic pattern and the signal intensity of 32P-labeled nuclear proteins in LEC rat were indistinguishable from those of normal rat. These results suggest that a cellular event other than protein phosphorylation required for the initiation of DNA synthesis upon growth stimulation is impaired by copper cytotoxicity.
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