[Cytogenetic aberrations in peripheral blood mononuclear cells in acute Lyme-borreliosis patients]

It is known that among biological mutagenic factors the cytogenetic aberrations can be induced by not only intracellular parasites like viruses, but also some extracellular infectious agents including bacteria, protozoas and helminthes. The object of this work was to study the cytogenetic status of acute Lyme borreliosis patients. It was found that the acute Lyme borreliosis patients as compared with the control group showed significantly higher frequencies of lymphocytes with chromosome instability in the peripheral blood mononuclear cell cultures. Chromosome instability included the aneugenic type like polyploidy, hypoploidy or endoreduplication as well as the clastogenic type like chromatid and chromosomal breaks. In addition, high chromosome abnormality frequencies in the patients' cultures were associated with an increase in elimination of the abnormal cells by apoptosis.