Abstract
DNA damage induced by the radiation including ultraviolet (UV) light exerts adverse effects on genome stability, alters the normal state of life, and causes many kinds of diseases. Hear we investigated the effects of the nuclear deformation on UV radiation resistance of DNA in epithelial-like cells derived from Xenopus laevis (XTC-YF). XTC-YF cells spread normally in the space between micropillars whose center to center spacing were 9 μm and their nuclei appeared to be “trapped” mechanically on the array of pillars. The average fluorescent intensity of DNA was significantly higher in the cells cultured between the pillars than that on the normal flat substrates. We found that the UV radiation-induced DNA damage, estimated by the fluorescent intensity of the phospho-histone γ-H2AX, was significantly inhibited in the cells cultured on the pillar substrates. These results indicate that the inhibition of UV radiation-induced DNA damages might be resulted from DNA aggregation caused by the mechanical stress of the nucleus of the cells on the pillars. Our study first demonstrated the nuclear stress-induced inhibition of DNA damages in living cells.
