Chromosome instability in untreated adult celiac disease patients

Abstract

Spontaneous chromosome aberrations (CAs) and induced fragile sites (FSs) were analysed in 12 untreated adult coeliac disease (CD) patients and 8 healthy controls. Blood lymphocytes from each individual were cultured for 72 h at 37°C in F‐10 medium with 5% fetal calf serum and 0.1 ml phytohemagglutinine. FSs were induced by FudR (10 μg/ml, 24h before harvesting) and caffeine (2.2 mM, 6 h before harvest). Spontaneous CAs and FSs were analysed on 30–50 Giemsa‐stained and G‐banded metaphases. The mean frequencies of spontaneous CAs (abnormal cells, gaps/cell and breaks/cell) of CD patients (0.24 ±0.02, 0.21 ±0.02 and 0.13 ±0.02, respectively) were significantly higher than those of controls (0.04±0.01, 0.02±0.01 and 0.02±0.01, respectively) ( p < 0.001). Fourteen spontaneous CAs and 5 FSs specific for CD patients presented a strong coincidence (70%) with bands involved in T‐ and B‐cell malignant lymphoma rearrangements. These findings suggest that CD has chromosome instability affecting specific points that could be related to the high prevalence of malignancies in this disorder.