Host cell reactivation of sunlamp-exposed adenovirus in fibroblasts from patients with Bloom's syndrome, ataxia telangiectasia, and Huntington's disease.

In this study, a sensitive host cell reactivation (HCR) technique was used to examine the repair capacity for DNA damaged by sunlamp exposure in fibroblast strains derived from 5 normal individuals and 8 patients representing three different diseases associated with DNA repair deficiencies. Adenovirus type 2 (Ad 2) was exposed to radiation from a GE 275 W sunlamp and subsequently used to infect fibroblast monolayers. At 48 hr after infection, cells were scored for the presence of viral structural antigens (Vag) using indirect immunofluorescent staining. Previous reports using this technique showed a substantial reduction in the HCR of sunlamp-exposed Ad 2 for infection of excision repair deficient fibroblasts from patients with xeroderma pigmentosum. In contrast, the HCR of Vag synthesis for sunlamp-exposed Ad 2 was in the normal range for the three ataxia telangiectasia, three Bloom's syndrome, and two Huntington's disease fibroblasts strains.