title: Constitutive endonuclease to induce high molecular weight or internucleosomal DNA fragmentation in freshly isolated leukemia cells.
abstract: Using an autodigestion method, we investigated endogenous endonuclease(s) in leukemia cells freshly obtained from pediatric patients with various types of leukemia. Endonucleolytic activity was found to cause both high molecular weight and internucleosomal DNA fragmentation at a neutral pH in whole cell lysates of all common acute lymphoblastic leukemia (cALL) blasts, which was Mg2+-dependent and Ca2+-independent. Whole lysates from most acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML) cells possessed similar endonuclease activity, but both Mg2+ and Ca2+ were required for the activity. Our results suggest that leukemia cells of different lineages have distinct constitutive endonucleases, which may play a role in the occurrence of apoptosis in these cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Kyoto University, Sakyo, Japan.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kataoka
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kubota
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Usami
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Okuda
authors.forename: Y W
authors.initials: YW
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Koishi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sawada
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Akiyama
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Furusho
mesh_terms: D017209:Apoptosis; D053938:DNA Fragmentation; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm / Q000378:metabolism*; D004706:Endodeoxyribonucleases / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000378:metabolism*; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology; D006801:Humans; D007938:Leukemia / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D009707:Nucleosomes / Q000378:metabolism; D015032:Zinc / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D004273:DNA, Neoplasm; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors; D009707:Nucleosomes; D004706:Endodeoxyribonucleases; D015032:Zinc