Fragile sites and leukemia

Summary

To induce the expression of fragile sites, PHA-stimulated lymphocytes during the last 24 h of culture were incubated either in 199 medium which is relatively deficient in folic acid or in 1640 medium supplemented by MTX or FdU. Blood samples from 20 patients and 12 controls were examined. At the same time the cytogenetic study of bone marrow cells from the patients was also conducted. The results show that both the rates of chromosome aberrations and the expressive frequencies of fragile sites in normal cells of the patients were much higher than in those of the normal controls. Besides, there was a close relationship between the fragile sites, the cancer breakpoints and the oncogenic loci. It was also found that the rates of chromosome aberrations were significantly increased in patients who had received chemotherapy, but the expressive frequencies of fragile sites were not. The possibility of detecting susceptible individuals by the study of their fragile sites is proposed.