Modulation of DNA base excision repair during neuronal differentiation

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

  • Peter Sykora
  • Jenq-Lin Yang
  • Leslie K Ferrarelli
  • Jingyan Tian
  • Takashi Tadokoro
  • Avanti Kulkarni
  • Lior Weissman
  • Guido Keijzers
  • David M Wilson
  • Mark P Mattson
  • Bohr, Vilhelm
Neurons are terminally differentiated cells with a high rate of metabolism and multiple biological properties distinct from their undifferentiated precursors. Previous studies showed that nucleotide excision DNA repair is downregulated in postmitotic muscle cells and neurons. Here, we characterize DNA damage susceptibility and base excision DNA repair (BER) capacity in undifferentiated and differentiated human neural cells. The results show that undifferentiated human SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells are less sensitive to oxidative damage than their differentiated counterparts, in part because they have robust BER capacity, which is heavily attenuated in postmitotic neurons. The reduction in BER activity in differentiated cells correlates with diminished protein levels of key long patch BER components, flap endonuclease-1, proliferating cell nuclear antigen, and ligase I. Thus, because of their higher BER capacity, proliferative neural progenitor cells are more efficient at repairing DNA damage compared with their neuronally differentiated progeny.
Original languageEnglish
JournalNeurobiology of Aging
Volume34
Issue number7
Pages (from-to)1717-27
Number of pages11
ISSN0197-4580
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2013

ID: 47451185