Elimination of methyl methanesulfonate (MMS)-induced micronuclei (MNS) under mild hyperthermia via p53-dependent pathway in human lymphoid cells.

P53-mediated cellular response has been known to play a crucial role in maintaining genomic stability of mammalian cells against genotoxic stresses. In our previous study, we showed that mild hyperthermia was sufficient to induce apoptosis on p53-dependent pathway in human lymphoid system (Seo et al., 1999), suggesting that mild hyperthermia might be useful for the reducing of genomic instability. However, there have been few reports to show the direct evidence on preventive role of p53 under mild hyperthermia against carcinogenic DNA damage. Here we first show the elimination of MMS-induced micronuclei (MN) as one of biomarkers of carcinogenic risk by p53 activation in human lymphoid cells in response to mild hyperthermia, strongly suggesting a possible protective role of mild hyperthermia in chromosomal stability against genotoxic stresses. Our data might support investigation of the clinical application of mild hyperthermia for the prevention of carcinogenesise in the human lymphoid system.