DNA-REPAIR IN CISPLATIN-SENSITIVE AND RESISTANT HUMAN CELL-LINES MEASURED IN SPECIFIC GENES BY QUANTITATIVE POLYMERASE CHAIN-REACTION

More than 80% of patients with testicular germ cell tumours (TGCT) are cured using cisplatin-based combination chemotherapy, and resistance to cisplatin is the final barrier to the cure of nearly all patients w ith this disease. In this study, we used quantitative polymerase chain reaction (Q-PCR) to investigate the role of DNA repair in cisplatin r esistance in two genes, one transcribed and one not transcribed. Three pairs of cisplatin-sensitive and resistant cell lines were used, two derived from TGCT and one from a bladder cancer. In these pairs of sub lines, we observed no major differences between the repair of cisplati n-induced damage in the transcribed and nontranscribed genes, nor did there appear to be any relationship between DNA repair capacity and th e development of cisplatin resistance. Despite the strong indication t hat the sensitivity of testis tumour cells to cisplatin is related to their reduced ability to repair cisplatin-damaged DNA, these cells app arently do not become resistant to cisplatin by acquiring DNA repair c apacity. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Inc.