Ionizing radiation, but not ultraviolet radiation, induces mitotic catastrophe in mouse epidermal keratinocytes with aberrant cell cycle checkpoints.

Ultraviolet radiation (UVR) and ionizing radiation (IR) are common genotoxic stresses that damage human skin, although the specific damages to the genomic DNA are different. Here, we show that in the mouse glabrous skin, both UVR and IR induce DNA damage, cell cycle arrest, and condensed cell nuclei. However, only IR induces mitotic catastrophe (MC) in the epidermis. This is because UVR induces a complete blockage of pRB phosphorylation and cell cycle arrest in the G1 phase, whereas pRB phosphorylation remains positive in a significant portion of the epidermal keratinocytes following IR exposure. Furthermore, Cyclin B1 expression is significantly downregulated only by IR but not UVR. Finally, there are more MC cells in the epidermis of p53-/- mice after IR exposure as compared to wild-type mice. Our results suggest that although both IR and UVR are genotoxic, they show distinct impacts on the cell cycle machinery and thus damage the epidermal keratinocytes via different mechanisms.