Increased frequency of sister-chromatid exchanges in alcoholics

Abstract

The frequency of SCES was significantly increased in the alcoholics analyzed (10.6 &/- SD 0.66) when compared to the frequency of a control group (8.4 &/- SD 0.51). Statistical analysis of the data obtained showed that the increase was not apparently related to age, sex, cigarette smoking, duration in years of alcohol abuse, nutritional status or type of alcoholic beverage commonly consumed by the individual. Alcoholics recovering for at least one year from alcohol abuse were examined and the frequency of SCES was found to be equal to the SCE frequency in the control group. There was no statistical significance between the age, sex of the individual, smoking history and years of abstention from alcohol abuse with respect to the frequency of SCES. Therefore, one year of abstention appears sufficient to allow the SCE frequency to return to that found in the control group. In order to keep extraneous factors at a minimum and to analyze the effect of a particular factor, such as alcohol, on the number of SCES, a careful medical history and screening program was followed. However, more information is needed to determine which factors play a role in causing genetic damage and inducing SCES and to determine the significance SCES may have with respect to genetic information and function.

Effect of gene polymorphisms and ethanol consumption on micronucleus frequency in human reticulocytes: a preliminary study

“…Alcoholics have been found to have a higher frequency of SCEs, CAs, and MN in their lymphocytes than non-alcoholics [33][34][35], which is in line with the results of our study, with some slight differences. The MN observed in the peripheral blood lymphocytes reflect a complex exposure environment, including bone marrow, blood stream, cell cultures, or mutagen challenge in vitro.…”

XRCC1 , CYP2E1 and ALDH2 genetic polymorphisms and sister chromatid exchange frequency alterations amongst vinyl chloride monomer-exposed polyvinyl chloride workers

“…The observed increase in level of SCE amongst older subjects could be either due to the presence of cumulative damage caused by long-term exposure to unidentified carcinogens and/or mutagens, or from other factors related to cellular aging such as the relative integrity of the DNA repair process. In addition, an increased SCE frequency has reported in chronic alcoholics (Butler et al 1981), and alcohol consumption has been reported to generate reactive oxygen species presumably through the effect of cytochrome P450 2E1 (Bailey and Cunningham 1998;Mali et al 2001). However, the effect of alcohol on SCE frequency was not observed in our study.…”

Increased sensitivity to mitomycin C‐induced sister chromatid exchange in lymphocytes from patients undergoing hyperbaric oxygen therapy

“…Previous studies indicate that gender, age, smoking, and alcohol consumption are among the major confounding factors affecting SCE frequencies [Husgafvel-Pursiainen et al, 1980;Butler et al, 1981;Bonassi et al, 1995;Bolognesi et al, 1997]. To minimize the effects of these potential confounders, all the volunteer patients were nonsmokers and nondrinkers.…”