Bleomycin-induced chromosomal aberrations and sister chromatid exchanges in Down lymphocyte cultures

Peripheral blood lymphocytes from three patients with Down syndrome (DS; trisomy 21; aged 5-6 years) and three age-matched control children were studied for the induction of chromosomal aberrations and sister chromatid exchanges (SCEs). Cells in G0 were exposed to bleomycin (20-100 micrograms/ml) for 3 h, and then cultured in medium containing 5-bromodeoxyuridine and phytohemagglutinin for 66 h. By the sister chromatid differential staining method, chromosome analyses were performed on metaphase cells that had divided one, two, or three or more times after treatment. The results indicate that DS cells exposed to bleomycin are hypersensitive to the production of dicentric and ring chromosomes compared to normal cells. Bleomycin also led to a dose-related increase in the frequency of SCEs, but no difference was found between the SCE frequencies in DS or normal lymphocytes exposed to bleomycin.