Evidence of chromosome instability in chronic pancreatitis

In the current study we analyzed chromosome instability on peripheral blood lymphocytes cultured from 7 untreated patients with chronic pancreatitis ( CP) by assessing telomeric associations (TAS), chromosome aberrations (CA) and sister chromatid exchanges (SCE). Seven healthy individuals were also a nalyzed. Mean frequencies of TAS were significantly higher in CP patients ( X +/- SE:11.00+/-2.37) compared to controls (1.00 +/- 0.30) (p<0.001). Chro mosomes preferentially involved in TAS were: 9, 20, 16 and 21, being the mo st affected arms: 9p, 20q, 16p, 9q and 21q. Al these terminal bands were co incident with cancer breakpoints (p<0.03), two of them (40%) were specifica lly associated to pancreatic carcinoma rearrangements. Three bands (60%) we re coincident with oncogene location. The mean frequency of CA was signific antly higher in patients (3.88 +/-0.80) compared to controls (0.63 +/-0.49) (p<0.001). Chromosomes 1, 2 and 13 were the most damaged. No specifically affected breakpoints were found. SCE analysis showed higher levels in patie nts (8.33 +/-0.70) than in controls (6.62 +/- 0.34) (p<0.025), but no diffe rences were observed in cell cycle kinetics. Our results clearly indicate t hat CP patients exhibit chromosome instability, showing the presence of an unstable genome that could be related to the cancer development observed in this disease.