Histone complements of human tissues,carcinomas, and carcinoma-derived cell lines

Summary The pattern of subtypes of the nucleosomal histories and of historic Hl was investigated in human cells from adult and fetal lung and liver, from carcinoma tissues and from carcinoma-derived cell lines, with the object of comparing these patterns, and their relationship to cell growth rate, with those in cells of other species. The subtype pattern of the nucleosomal histories H2A and H3 shows a correlation with replication rate. In adult tissues, subtype H3-3 predominates over H3-2 and H3-1, and the subtype H2A-1 and H2A-2 are approximately equally abundant. In fetal tissues, lung carcinoma and cultured carcinoma-derived cell lines, the subtype H3-1 is predominant and H2A-1 is more abundant than H2A-2. The subtype pattern of H 1 also differs between normal and carcinoma cells, among different tissues, and in different cell lines derived from the same type of carcinoma. In particular, the relative level of H1° differs in several cell lines showing relatively high rates of replication, and in some cases represents more than 25% of the total H1, similar to the level in slowly replicating normal adult liver and lung tissues. The relative level of H1° does not therefore appear to be correlated in a simple manner with cell growth rate in these human cells.Abbreviations PhMeS0² phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride - SDS sodium dodecyl sulphate