The pulmonary complications of 1,3-N,N'-bis(2-chloroethyl)-N-nitrosourea (BCNU) are among the most important dose limiting factors of BCNU-containing cancer chemotherapeutic regimens. BCNU damages DNA of both cancer cells and normal cells. To increase the resistance of lung cells to BCNU, we employed gene transfer of Escherichia coli formamidopyrimidine-DNA glycosylase (FPG) and human 8-oxoguanine-DNA glycosylase (hOGG1) to A549 cells, a lung epithelial cell line, using a bicistronic retroviral vector, pSF91- RE, which encoded both FPG/hOGG1 and an enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP). The transduced epithelial cells were sorted by flow cytometry and expression of FPG/hOGG1 protein was determined by the level of FPG/hOGG1 RNA and enzyme activity. The single cell gel electrophoresis (comet assay) measured DNA damage induced by BCNU. FPG/hOGG1-expressing A549 cells incubated with 40-500 µg/ml BCNU exhibited significantly less DNA damage than vector-transduced cells. In addition, FPG/hOGG1-expressing cells incubated with 10-40 µg/ml BCNU showed at least a 25% increase in cell survival. Gene transfer of FPG/hOGG1 reduced BCNU-induced DNA damage and cytotoxicity of cultured lung cells and may suggest a new mechanism to reduce BCNU pulmonary toxicity.