Figure 4

PARP inhibitors activate DSB repair by homologous recombination. A: neutral comet assay for detection of double strand breaks. For scoring the comet pattern, 800 nuclei from each slide were counted. HT144 ATM-deficient cells display more DSBs than G361 ATM-proficient cells after ANI treatment and only ATM wild type cells were able to completely resolve DSBs. Experiment is one representative of three similars. B: Analysis of cell death. Sub-G1 analysis was performed by flow cytometry using the propidium iodide (PI) DNA-staining method. Increased cell death with ANI is observed after long times of exposure (72 hours) in ATM-deficient cells (HT144, grey bars and ATM-proficient cells, G361, white bars) treated either with ANI alone or in combination with γ-irradiation respect ATM-proficient cells. Results represent the average ± SEM of three independent observations. * p < 0,05; **p < 0,01 respect to untreated HT144.