Abasic sites (apurinic/apyrimidinic, AP sites) are the most common DNA lesions generated by both spontaneous and induced base loss. In a previous study we have shown that circular plasmid molecules containing multiple AP sites are efficiently repaired by Chinese hamster extracts in an in vitro repair assay. An average patch size of 6.6 nucleotides for a single AP site was calculated. To define the exact repair patch, a circular DNA duplex with a single AP site was constructed. The repair synthesis carried out by hamster and human cell extracts was characterized by restriction endonuclease analysis of the area containing the lesion. The results indicate that, besides the repair events involving the incorporation of a single nucleotide at the lesion site, repair synthesis occurred also 3' to the AP site and involved a repair patch of approximately 7 nucleotides. This alternative repair pathway was completely inhibited by the presence in the repair reaction of a polyclonal antibody raised against human proliferating cell nuclear antigen. These data give the first evidence that mammalian cell extracts repair natural AP sites by two distinct pathways: a single nucleotide gap filling reaction targeted at the AP site and a proliferating cell nuclear antigen-dependent pathway that removes a short oligonucleotide containing the abasic site and 3'-flanking nucleotides.

Hamster cell extracts that perform repair synthesis on covalently closed circular DNA containing pyrimidine dimers, were used to study the repair of apurinic/apyrimidinic (AP) sites and methoxyamine (MX)-modified AP sites. Plasmid molecules were heat-treated at pH 5 and incubated with MX when required. The amount of damage introduced ranged from 0.2 to 0.9 AP sites/kb. Extracts were prepared from the Chinese hamster ovary CHO-9 cell line and from its derivative, 43-3B clone which is mutated in the nucleotide excision repair (NER) ERCC1 gene. AP and MX-AP sites stimulated repair synthesis by CHO-9 cell extracts. The level of synthesis correlated with the number of lesions and was of similar magnitude to the repair stimulated by 4.3 u.v. photoproducts/kb. Repair of AP and MX-AP sites was faster than the repair of u.v. damage and was independent of ERCC1 gene product. The high level of repair replication was due to a very efficient and rapid incision of plasmids carrying AP or MX-AP sites, performed by abundant AP endonucleases present in the extract. The calculated average repair patch sizes were: 7 nucleotides per AP site; 10 nucleotides per MX-AP site; 28 nucleotides per (6-4) u.v. photoproduct or cyclobutane pyrimidine dimer. The data indicate that AP and MX-AP sites are very efficiently repaired by base-excision repair in mammalian cells and suggest that MX-AP sites may also be processed via alternative repair mechanisms.

Clinical observations show that two subtypes of sinonasal malignant melanoma exist: uni- and multilocular melanoma. The aim of this retrospective study was to determine the prevalence and outcome of multilocular sinonasal malignant melanoma. All patients with sinonasal malignant melanoma treated at our institution between 1992 and 2011 were included. Survival and recurrence data were analyzed related to the distribution pattern of the tumors and other factors. Twenty-five patients were identified and included in the analysis. Seven patients (28 %) suffered from multilocular, the remaining 18 patients (72 %) from unilocular sinonasal malignant melanoma. The first group showed a significantly worse disease-free survival, whereas disease-specific and overall survival did not differ between the two subtypes. Multilocular sinonasal malignant melanoma is associated with an unfavorable disease-free survival compared to its unilocular counterpart.

No abstract

No abstract