Repair and mutagenesis survey of 8-hydroxyguanine in bacteria and human cells

8-hydroxyguanine is one of the major products formed by the reactive oxygen species which are generated in living cells as a consequence of either the normal metabolic pathways or an exogeneous chemical or physical stress. Th e production of the oxidative damage is described and the different repair pathways of the oxidative lesions are analyzed from bacteria to human cells . Analysis of repair in human cells harboring different deficiencies in the nucleotide excision repair mechanism such as xeroderma pigmentosum cells f rom different complementation groups and cells from Cockayne's syndrome pat ients allows us to emphasize the possibility of the intervention of this re pair mechanism on the elimination of oxidative damages. Finally, a repair m odel of oxidative lesions is proposed. (C) Societe francaise de biochimie e t biologie moleculaire / Elsevier, Paris.