Spontaneous and induced mutagenesis frequency in peripheral blood lymphocytes of children with depressive disorders

Abstract

Aims. To investigate spontaneous and induced mutagenesis in the peripheral blood lymphocytes of children with depression. Methods. Cytogenetic analysis has been carried out in 24 patients with depression before and after administration of mitomycin C, and in 24 healthy coevals, aged 7 to 17, who were under clinical research in the S.I.“ICAHC NAMS of Ukraine” Results. As a result of cytogenetic studies there were identified spontaneous and induced mutagenesis levels in children with depressive states. The total number of chromosome aberrations before the impact of mutagen-provocateur mitomycin C in patients with depression came to 12.9  %, whereas in healthy probands it was 2.25  %. After exposure of peripheral blood lymphocytes to the mutagen impact the frequency of chromosome abnormalities in patients increased by 1.6 times (21.1  %) and in healthy children by 6.7 times (15.1  %), indicating a decreased adaptive response in children with depression. Conclusions. Single fragments prevailed among chromatid-type aberrations in patients; among chromosome-type they were elongation and breaks on the centromere and chromatid-isochromatid exchanges; among genome type – premature centromere divergence, as compared with the frequency of those disorders in healthy children.

Key words: patients, depression, healthy persons, chromosomes, mutagenesis.