Decreased repair of gamma ray damaged DNA in progeria.

A sensitive host-cell reactivation technique was used to examine the DNA repair ability of fibroblasts from two patients with classical progeria. Fibroblasts were infected with either non-irradiated or gamma-irradiated adenovirus type 2 and at 48 hrs after infection cells were examined for the presence of viral structural antigens using immunofluorescent staining. The production of viral structural antigens was considerably reduced in the progeria lines as compared to normal fibroblasts when gamma-irradiated virus was used, indicating a defect in the repair of gamma ray damaged DNA in the progeria cells.