Increased sister chromatid exchanges in peripheral lymphocytes of patients with Crohn's disease

A cytogenetic study was performed using Crohn's disease patients to determine whether the presence of chromosome instability is related to Crohn's disease, a chronic inflammatory bowel disease. Sister chromatid exchange (SCE) frequencies in peripheral blood lymphocyte cultures from 22 Crohn's disease patients and an equal number of healthy controls matched for sex and age were analyzed. The mean of SCE frequency in Crohn's disease patients was 11.64 +/- 0.42 (SEM) per cell, which was significantly higher than the value of 8.38 +/- 0.22 per cell in the matched controls (p < 0.0001). The Crohn's disease patients showed significantly increased high frequency cells (HFC) as compared to those among the matched controls. There was a significant correlation between HFC frequencies of the Crohn's disease patients and the severity of their disease as determined by the number of relapses per year and the degree of chronic activity after adjusting for the smoking status (r = 0.54, p = 0.011). In both smokers and non-smokers, the mean SCE and HFC frequencies of the patients were significantly higher than those of the controls. These results suggest that Crohn's disease is a condition with increased chromosome instability characterized by a high level of SCE frequencies which are associated with the inflammatory condition itself.