title: High O6-methylguanine methyl transferase activity is frequently found in human oral cancer cells with p53 inactivation.
abstract: Many studies have indicated that cancer cells expressing mutant (mt) p53 are resistant to genotoxic stress such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Inasmuch as most human oral cancer cells either express mt p53 or are infected with <high risk> human papillomavirus (HPV), we determined the sensitivity to N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG), a genotoxic chemical carcinogen, the activity of a DNA repair enzyme O6-methylguanine methyl transferase (MGMT) and the status of p53 in 11 human oral cancer cell lines, 2 HPV-immortalized human oral keratinocytes and 3 normal human oral keratinocyte (NHOK) cultures. Ten cancer cell lines demonstrated significantly higher level of MGMT activities compared to normal or immortalized non-tumorigenic cells, while one cancer cell line showed negligible MGMT activity. All immortalized cells and NHOK showed very low MGMT activity. Interestingly, all cancer cells with high MGMT activity expressed either mt p53 or harbored <high risk> HPV DNA. However, infection of one cancer cell line (that does not demonstrate the MGMT activity) with retrovirus expressing an mt p53 protein did not alter the sensitivity of cells to MNNG and the enzyme activity. These data indicate that most human oral cancer cells contain moderately high DNA repair enzyme activity, and in doing so may be resistant to genotoxic stress, but the association of p53 with MGMT activities should further be investigated.
authors.affiliation: UCLA School of Dentistry, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: N H
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Park
mesh_terms: D015153:Blotting, Western; D002460:Cell Line; D004260:DNA Repair; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D006801:Humans; D015603:Keratinocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000201:enzymology; D008769:Methylnitronitrosoguanidine / Q000494:pharmacology; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D019853:O(6)-Methylguanine-DNA Methyltransferase / Q000378:metabolism*; D027383:Papillomaviridae / Q000235:genetics; D012190:Retroviridae / Q000235:genetics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014162:Transfection; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53; D008769:Methylnitronitrosoguanidine; D019853:O(6)-Methylguanine-DNA Methyltransferase