Chromosomal Analyses of Bone Marrow and Peripheral Blood in Subjects With a History of Illicit Drug Use

Cytogenetic studies in control men and women

“…The concomitant observation of low breakages in some of these cultures and high breakages in others tends to rule out the possibility that extrinsic variables, i.e., media contaminants, inconsistency in harvesting procedures, etc., were responsible for the elevated breakages in some cultures. A simi lar lack of consistency in breakages has been seen in cultures from differ ent persons exposed to the same types of drugs (Amarose and Schuster, 1971), in different patients with clinically identical viral infections (Gripenberg, 1965), and among different persons vaccinated against yellow fever (Harnden, 1964). Gripenberg has suggested that variations in metabolic responses and differences in genetic factors could contribute to differences in breakages in persons exposed to the same agents.…”

“…More recently, Amarose and Schuster (1971) evaluated 2217 metaphases from 22 control subjects, in conjunction with studies of cytogenetic aberrations in illicit drug users, and found a similar frequency of breakage of 7.8%. In smaller surveys, other investigators (Gripenberg, 1965;N ichols et al, 1965;Brogger, 1971) have also re ported average breakages exceeding 5 % in lymphocyte cultures from con trols; however, many of the persons included in these studies were phenotypically abnormal and cannot be considered representative of a control population.…”

An Animal Model for the Evaluation of Drug-Induced Chromosome Damage

“…The preparation of 72-hour peripheral blood cultures using a whole blood micro method, the harvesting, scoring of the chromosome complements, and classification of chromosome aberrations were carried out as previously described [1,3], Cultures were prepared as follows:…”

“…Drugs as cytotoxicants capable of altering the cellular chromosome complement have allegedly included psychotropic drugs commonly abused by society [1]. There has been implicit in the scientific literature the belief and fear of a relationship concerning mind-altering drugs and chromosome damage.…”

“…These concomitants of drug abusers' life styles were considered by us to be possible factors mitigating against relating chromosome damage to their histories of drug abuse [1].…”