Quantitative Analysis of Oxidized Guanine, 8-Oxoguanine, in Mitochondrial DNA by Immunofluorescence

8-Oxoguanine (8-oxoG), an oxidized form of guanine, is one of the major mutagenic lesions generated under oxidative stress. Oxidative damage in mitochondrial DNA has been implicated as a causative factor for a wide variety of degenerative diseases as well as for cancer during aging. We established a quantitative method for in situ detection of 8-oxoG in mitochondrial DNA in a single-cell level using a monoclonal antibody. Specific detection of 8-oxoG in mitochondrial DNA was confirmed by pre-treatment of samples with DNase I or MutM, the latter excising 8-oxoG opposite C in DNA. We then analyzed 8-oxoG dynamics in mitochondrial DNA of the wild-type and 8-oxoG DNA glycosylase (OGG1)-deficient mouse cells after exposure to hydrogen peroxide. Intensities for the 8-oxoG immunoreactivity in mitochondrial DNA were increased immediately after the exposure to hydrogen peroxide in both types of cells. The increased intensities returned to basal levels within a few hours only in wild-type cells, but not in OGG1-deficient cells which exhibited the increased intensities even 24 h after the exposure. These results indicate that OGG1 is a major enzyme for excision repair of 8-oxoG in mitochondrial DNA in mouse cells, and that our method described here is appropriate to study 8-oxoG dynamics in mitochondrial DNA.