3'-Azido-2',3'-dideoxythymidine (AZT), the thymidine analogue used against human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1), exhibits bone marrow and blood toxicity in humans, presumably as the result of genotoxic mechanisms induced by incorporation of AZT into eukaryotic DNA. Preferential incorporation of AZT into telomeric regions of DNA of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells has been previously demonstrated by immunofluorescence using anti-AZT antibodies. We quantitatively compared the amount of [H-3]-AZT bound to telomeric and non-telomeric sequences of CHO cell DNA. DNA from cells exposed to [H-3]-AZT was digested by a mixture of restriction enzymes, frequent cutters in the overall genome, without restriction sites in the telomeric repeat. As a result, the telomeric fraction (TF): isolated by separation columns, comprised longer sequences (> 2 kb) than the non-telomeric fraction (NTF). Radioactivity associated with each fraction revealed a three fold increase in [H-3]-AZT incorporated in the TF compared with the NTF. No preferential telomeric binding was detected for [H-3]-thymidine (Tdr) or [H-3]-5'bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) in similar experiments or in DNA of AZT-treated mouse primary fibroblasts, cells with large telomeric repeats that lack telomerase. When the chromosomal ends of high molecular weight [H-3]-AZT-DNA were digested with Pal 31, the radioactivity was double in the TF compared with the NTF. Therefore incorporation of AZT in CHO immortalized cells but not in primary fibroblasts (that lack telomerase) indirectly shows that AZT incorporation could be telomerase-mediated.

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