Long-term mutagenic effects of ionising radiation on mice which vary in their p53 status

The tumor suppressor gene p53 plays a major role in the maintenance of genomic integrity. The impact that variations in cellular turnover rates and sensitivity to DNA damage will have on the effectiveness of p53 in this role was examined by following the induction and persistence of mutations in the brain and small intestine of mice after exposure to ionising radiation (IR). The examination of mutagenesis was carried out using the pUR288 LacZ plasmid-based mouse model—consisting of mice containing a target gene for mutation analysis integrated into every cell. In addition the mice varied in their p53 status. The tissues were compared at post-irradiation time-points from 24 h to 3 months. The mutation frequencies (MFs) in the p53 wildtype and heterozygous brains peaked at 24 h post-irradiation, and then returned to background or close to background levels, respectively. The p53 nullizygous brain showed a more fluctuating MF pattern, but returned to background levels by 3 months, indicating that the effect of the loss of p53 did not result in lasting differences in the response to mutation induction in the brain. In the intestine, there was a different pattern; in the wildtype and heterozygous animals, the MFs increased from 24 h to a peak at 4 weeks post-irradiation, before decreasing towards background levels at 3 months. The MFs in the intestine from the nullizygous animals did not decrease significantly between 4 weeks and 3 months, illustrating that the loss of p53 had a greater impact in this tissue than the brain. The variation in mutation frequencies and the type of mutations generated after DNA damage suggests that while p53 plays a significant role in the maintenance of genomic integrity, other mechanisms, such as the drive to replicate in progenitor cells, can reduce its effectiveness as the “guardian of the genome”.