Mouse differentiating spermatogonia can generate germinal stem cells in vivo.

In adults, stem cells are responsible for the maintenance of many actively renewing tissues, such as haematopoietic, skin, gut and germinal tissues. These stem cells can self-renew or be committed to becoming progenitors. Stem-cell commitment is thought to be irreversible but in male and female Drosophila melanogaster, it was shown recently that differentiating germ cells can revert to functional stem cells that can restore germinal lineage. Whether progenitors are also able to generate stem cells in mammals remains unknown. Here we show that purified mouse spermatogonial progenitors committed to differentiation can generate functional germinal stem cells that can repopulate germ-cell-depleted testes when transplanted into adult mice. We found that GDNF, a key regulator of the stem-cell niche, and FGF2 are able to reprogram in vitro spermatogonial progenitors for reverse differentiation. This study supports the emerging concept that the stem-cell identity is not restricted in adults to a definite pool of cells that self-renew, but that stemness could be acquired by differentiating progenitors after tissue injury and throughout life.

Role of XRCC1 in the coordination and stimulation of oxidative DNA damage repair initiated by the DNA glycosylase hOGG1.

XRCC1 participates in DNA single strand break and base excision repair (BER) to preserve genetic stability in mammalian cells. XRCC1 participation in these pathways is mediated by its interactions with several of the acting enzymes. Here, we report that XRCC1 interacts physically and functionally with hOGG1, the human DNA glycosylase that initiates the repair by BER of the mutagenic oxidized base 8-oxoguanine. This interaction leads to a 2- to 3-fold stimulation of the DNA glycosylase activity of hOGG1. XRCC1 stimulates the formation of the hOGG1 Schiff-base DNA intermediate without interfering with the endonuclease activity of APE1, the second enzyme in the pathway. On the contrary, the stimulation in the appearance of the incision product seems to reflect the addition of the effects of XRCC1 on the two first enzymes of the pathway. The data presented support a model by which XRCC1 will pass on the DNA intermediate from hOGG1 to the endonuclease APE1. This results in an acceleration of the overall repair process of oxidized purines to yield an APE1-cleaved abasic site, which can be used as a substrate by DNA polymerase beta. More importantly, the results unveil a highly coordinated mechanism by which XRCC1, through its multiple protein-protein interactions, extends its orchestrating role from the base excision step to the resealing of the repaired DNA strand.

Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1) is required in murine cell lines for base excision repair of oxidative DNA damage in the absence of DNA polymerase beta.

Oxidative DNA base damage is mainly corrected by the base excision repair (BER) pathway, which can be divided into two subpathways depending on the length of the resynthetized patch, either one nucleotide for short patch BER or several nucleotides for long patch BER. The role of proteins in the course of BER processes has been investigated in vitro using purified enzymes and cell-free extracts. In this study, we have investigated the repair of 8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanine (8-oxoG) in vivo using wild-type, polymerase beta(-/-) (Polbeta(-/-)), poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1(-/-) (PARP-1(-/-)), and Polbeta(-/-)PARP-1(-/-) 3T3 cell lines. We used non replicating plasmids containing a 8-oxoG:C base pair to study the repair of the lesion located in a transcribed sequence (TS) or in a non-transcribed sequence (NTS). The results show that 8-oxoG repair in TS is not significantly impaired in cells deficient in Polbeta or PARP-1 or both. Whereas 8-oxoG repair in NTS is normal in Polbeta-null cells, it is delayed in PARP-1-null cells and greatly impaired in cells deficient in both Polbeta and PARP-1. The removal of 8-oxoG and presumably the cleavage at the resulting apurinic/apyrimidinic site are not affected in the PARP-1(-/-)Polbeta(-/-) cell lines. However, 8-oxoG repair is incomplete, yielding plasmid molecules with a nick at the site of the lesion. Therefore, PARP-1(-/-)Polbeta(-/-) cell lines cannot perform 5'-dRP removal and/or DNA repair synthesis. Furthermore, the poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation activity of PARP-1 is essential for 8-oxoG repair in a Polbeta(-/-) context, because expression of the catalytically inactive PARP-1 (E988K) mutant does not restore 8-oxoG repair, whereas an wild type PARP-1 does.

A global DNA repair mechanism involving the Cockayne syndrome B (CSB) gene product can prevent the in vivo accumulation of endogenous oxidative DNA base damage.

The Cockayne syndrome B (CSB) gene product is involved in the repair of various types of base modifications in actively transcribed DNA sequences. To investigate its significance for the repair of endogenous oxidative DNA damage, homozygous csb(-/-)/ogg1(-/-) double knockout mice were generated. These combine the deficiency of CSB with that of OGG1, a gene coding for the mammalian repair glycosylase that initiates the base excision repair of 7,8-dihydro-8-oxoguanine (8-oxoG). Compared to ogg1(-/-) mice, csb(-/-)/ogg1(-/-) mice were found to accumulate with age severalfold higher levels of oxidited purine modifications in hepatocytes, splenocytes and kidney cells. In contrast, the basal (steady-state) levels of oxidative DNA modifications in cells from csb(-/-) mice were not different from those in wild-type mice and did not increase with age. The analysis of the repair rates of additional oxidative DNA base modifications induced by photosensitization in immortalized embryonic fibroblasts was in accordance with these findings: compared to wild-type cells, the global repair was only slightly affected in csb(-/-) cells, more compromised in ogg1(-/-) cells, but virtually absent in csb(-/-)/ogg1(-/-) cells. An inhibition of transcription by alpha-amanitin did not block the Csb-dependent repair in ogg1(-/-) fibroblasts. The influence of Csb on the global repair of 8-oxoG was not detectable in assays with total protein extracts and in a shuttle vector system. The data indicate a role for Csb in the removal of 8-oxoG from the overall genome that is independent of both Ogg1-mediated base excision repair and regular transcription.