SPONTANEOUS LEVEL OF CHROMOSOMAL-ABERRATIONS IN PERIPHERAL-BLOOD LYMPHOCYTES OF CONTROL INDIVIDUALS OF THE CZECH-REPUBLIC POPULATION

In order to assess the potential of cytogenetic determinations on peri pheral blood lymphocytes as a mean of monitoring human population subj ects to occupational and environmental exposures to genotoxins, accura te baseline data are required. During the past 20 years many results o f th cytogenetic studies on peripheral blood lymphocytes from monitore d occupationally exposed and non-exposed groups were obtained. At the time of blood drawing a questionnaire was administered. The questions covered a brief medical and family history including age, sex, medicat ion, infectious diseases, smoking habits, X-ray examinations, alcohol consumption etc. Cytogenetic analysis from whole blood was carried out in short-term cultures. The cultivation time was 52 hours with all ce lls being in the first mitosis. A total of 100 well-spread metaphases containing 46 +/- 1 centromere were examined per donor on coded slides . Four categories of chromosome aberrations were evaluated: Chromatid and chromosome breaks, chromatid and chromosome exchanges. Cells beari ng breaks or exchanges were classified as aberrant cells. Gaps were re corded but not scored as aberrations. Results of the cytogenetic analy sis from control individuals (N = 5430) indicated elevation of spontan eous frequency of aberrant cells (AB.C.) with age. We found 1.10% AB.C :. (N = 551) in newborns; 0.71% AB.C. (N = 105) in the group 5-6 yr; 1 .20% (N = 1 734) in the group 7-15 yr; 1.25% AB.C. (N = 239) in the gr oup 16-19 yr and 1.59% (N = 2 801) in the group 20-63 yr. (C) 1998 Els evier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.