Herpes virus production as a marker of repair in ultraviolet irradiated human skin cells of different origin.

When confluent human skin cultures are ultraviolet (UV)-irradiated before infection with Herpes Simplex type 1 virus (HSV), their capacity to support virus growth is impaired. When the time interval between UV-exposure and infection is increased up to 36 hours, different recoveries of HSV production capacity are observed according to the origin of the host cells. 1) Two normal donors: the cells present a dose dependent recovery which is maximal for a dose ( : formula: (see text) at which a plateau level of unscheduled DNA synthesis (UDS) is reached. 2) A mother of two Xeroderma Pigmentosum (XP) children: in this line which exhibits a normal level of UDS, the extent of recovery is significantly decreased after exposures : formula: (see text) 3) An XP child: these cells have a normal level of UDS (XP variant) whereas they present a low extent of recovery as compared with that of the normal subjects. 4) Five XP children: in these excision deficient lines (UDS less than 15%), HSV production capacity decreases with increasing time intervals after UV exposure for doses greater than or equal to 3 : formula: (see text). For doses less than 3 : formula: (see text), a small recovery with an overshoot of viral production is observed 24 h after UV exposure in the lines (three) which present the highest UDS (10--15%) and not in the two lines which present a very low UDS (1--2%).