Correlation among the rates of dimer excision, DNA repair replication, and recovery of human cells from potentially lethal damage induced by ultraviolet radiation.

The kinetics of excision repair in confluent cultures of diploid human fibroblasts after ultraviolet irradiation at varying doses was measured by three different methods: (a) removal of thymine-containing dimers, (b) DNA excision repair synthesis, and (c) biological recovery of cells from the potentially lethal effects of the irradiation. Each method gave similar results and indicated that the excision rate was dependent upon the number of thymine-containing dimers induced (substrate concentration). For example, at a dose of 40 J/m2 (0.2% dimerization), the repair rate was 1.6 J/m2 per h as determined by a modified method to measure the number of thymine-containing dimers remaining in DNA and 1.65 J/m2 as measured by excision repair synthesis. At a dose of 7.5 J/m2, the repair rate was 0.5 J/m2 per h as measured by biological recovery, and at a dose of 7 J/m2, the repair rate was 0.46 J/m2 per h as measured by excision repair synthesis.