Differential Reactivation of Zinc‐Mediated Metallothionein Induction in Ultraviolet‐Irradiated Normal and Repair‐Deficient Human Cells

The ubiquitous, low‐molecular‐weight, thiol‐rich, metal‐binding protein, metallothionein (MT), can be induced in cultured normal human fibroblasts (NF) and xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) cells by exposure to ZnCl 2 . Both NF and XP cells tolerate up to 200 μ M ZnCl 2 in the growth medium. Upon addition of ZnCl 2 (200 μ M) to monolayer cultures, both NF and XP cells showed similar kinetics for the induction of MT synthesis: Within 7 hours the MT synthesis rate rose from a low, marginally detectable rate to a maximal rate at least 50‐fold greater than the basal rate. The induction of MT synthesis in both cell types was inhibited by actinomycin D (5 μ g/ml), indicating that the induction process is controlled at the level of transcription. Exposure of NF or XP cells to far ultraviolet light (UV) followed by induction with ZnCl 2 resulted in a UV dose‐dependent decrease in the maximal rate of MT synthesis measured 8.5 hours postirradiation. The UV sensitivity of the MT induction was greater in XP cells than in NF cells. However, considerations of the differential repair capacities of NF and XP cells superimposed upon the kinetics of MT induction were invoked to explain the apparent differential UV sensitivity of MT induction. Liquid holding recovery experiments showed that NF cells possess the capacity to reactivate this inducible gene function rapidly while XP cells arc deficient in the reactivation capacity. These results are discussed in the context of both UV transcriptional mapping of this inducible gene function and development of techniques for measuring repair of transcription‐blocking lesions.