Evaluation of Micronucleus and Nuclear Division Index in the Lymphocytes of some Iraqi Patients with Acute Lymphocyte Leukemia

Abstract

The aim of our study was to determine micronucleus MN frequency and nuclear division index in peripheral blood lymphocytes of patients diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia ALL, who had undergone chemotherapy. Patients were treated with nine of drugs, which included Vincristine , Methotrexate , Cytosar-U, L-asparaginase , Etoposide, , dexamethasone (Decadron) , Indoxan , Steroids. The study was carried out on fifty Iraqi patients (34 Male, 16 Female), aged 2-70 years with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia ALL. These samples included 20 pretreatment aged 7-70 years, 15 under treatment aged 2-57years and 15 relapsed aged 9-40 years, compared with a sample consisted of 50 apparently healthy normal individuals collected randomly from population living in Baghdad aged 3-75 years. Results of the of MN in the human lymphocyte observed a significant increase p<0.05 in the males and females of human peripheral blood lymphocytes of patients with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, before and after the chemotherapy as compared with the control. While, a significant decrease P> 0.05 in nucleic division index NDI was observed in the human peripheral blood lymphocytes of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Patients (males and females), before and after the chemotherapy as compared with the control. In addition, the results of MN and NDI were compared in the genders of the groups studied. In conclusion, the results indicated that there is a possibility of using the changes in the mean of MN frequency and NDI as biomarkers for the assessment of DNA damage in the human peripheral blood lymphocytes of patients with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia ALL before and after the chemotherapy treatment and the increase frequencies of MN in ALL patients indicate the effect of antileukemic agents in inducing somatic genetic damage.