Smoking enhances asbestos-induced genotoxicity, relative involvement of chromosome 1: a study using multicolor FISH...

Several experimental and epidermological studies have indicated augmentation of asbestos induced diseases by cigarette smoke by the mechanisms, which are still unknown. To determine whether smoking affects genetic system of the cells and further modifies asbestos induced genotoxicity, whole blood from non-smokers and smokers was exposed to asbestos fibres separately in vitro and micronucleus test was performed. The number of micronuclei was found to be significantly higher (P<0 05) in cases of smoker's lymphocytes, asbestos exposed non-smokers lymphocytes as well as asbestos exposed smokers lymphocytes, as compared with unexposed non-smokers lymphocytes. Further we investigated involvement of chromosome 1 in the damaging process using multicolor FISH technique. FISH is fast and reliable method, distinguishing both structural and numerical alterations. The centric/pericentric regions of chromosome 1 (cen-q12) were labeled, as the pericentric heterochromatin region 1 (q12) is quite large, highly repetitive and prone to breakage. Multicolor FISH assay suggested that the genetic damage by asbestos fibres mainly involve chromosome 1 but in case of cigarette smoking the damage is not strictly connected to chromosome 1 only, but also involves damage to other chromosomes. Further the study suggested that smoking makes genetic system of the cells more vulnerable to the deleterious effects of asbestos.