[The structure of the leukocyte DNA in leukemia patients during chemotherapy]

The authors studied the degree of DNA damage in in vitro cultured human peripheral lymphocytes (PL) and Jurcat's human T-cell lymphoma cells exposed to a stabilized 4 OH-cyclophosphan-mamophosphatide (MA) derivative, as well as in the leukocytes from patients with leukemia who were treated with cyclophosphan. There was an increase in alkaline DNA denaturation rate of LP lysates and T-cell lymphoma cells, which was in proportion to MA concentrations, and a higher sensitivity of LP to the genotoxic effect of MA given in doses of 5-10 micrograms/ml than that of Jurcat's cells, as well as high peripheral lymphocyte and neutrophil DNA damages in patients with leukemia during chemotherapy. The authors consider that the accumulation of single-strand breaks and alkaline-labile sites, which was recorded from the increase in alkaline DNA denaturation rate of cell lysates, is a highly sensitive test for detecting DNA damages in resting and slowly proliferating cells and can be useful in revealing and evaluating the severity of human genotoxic effects.