The involvement of heterochromatic damage in nickel-induced transformation.
Nickel ions produce selective damage in heterochromatic regions of chromosomes. Male Chinese hamster embryo cells, which have heterochromatin along the entire long arm of the X-chromosome, exhibit an unusually high incidence of nickel-induced transformation compared with female cells of the same species. However, 3-methylcholanthrene, a carcinogen that produces a random distribution of chromosome damage, transforms female and male cells equally. Other species that do not have as much heterochromatin on the X-chromosome exhibit similar incidences of nickel-induced tumors in males and females. Four out of five of the male nickel-transformed Chinese hamster cell lines exhibit a deletion of the heterochromatic long arm of the X-chromosome as the only common karyotypic aberration. This result indicates that a deletion of a heterochromatic chromosomal region may be an important feature of the nickel-induced carcinogenic process. All of the male nickel transformed cells lines are able to form tumors in athymic nude mice.
Conway
K
K
Institute of Environmental Medicine, New York University Medical Center 10016.
Costa
M
M
D000818:Animals; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic / Q000187:drug effects*; D002875:Chromosomes / Q000187:drug effects*; D006224:Cricetinae; D003412:Cricetulus; D005260:Female; D006570:Heterochromatin / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009532:Nickel / Q000633:toxicity*; D011247:Pregnancy; D014960:X Chromosome / Q000187:drug effects
D006570:Heterochromatin; D009532:Nickel