Smoking and sister chromatid exchange

Abstract

The present survey comprises analysis of sister chromatid exchange (SCE) frequencies in the peripheral blood lymphocytes of 100 subjects: 83 healthy men and women, both cigarette smokers and nonsmokers and 17 children. Both for men (30 smoking, 22 nonsmoking) and for women (13 smoking, 18 nonsmoking) the frequency of SCEs is significantly higher among smokers (group mean 9.6±S.E. 0.2) than among nonsmokers (group mean 8.1±S.E. 0.2). No difference is detected in the frequencies of metaphase chromosome aberrations analysed in the cultured lymphocytes of the same subjects. Young children (17 subjects, mean age 1.5 years) show a significantly lower frequency of SCEs (mean 5.1±0.6) than adults. While the induction of SCEs is known to provide a sensitive indicator of mutagen/carcinogen exposure in experimental assays, it may also give important information of in vivo exposure to genotoxic agents. However, on the basis of the present data, which confirm previous results, the effects of individual smoking habits should carefully be taken into account in evaluations of the effects of exogenous agents on SCE frequencies.