Investigation of genotoxicity in acromegaly from peripheral blood lymphocyte cultures using a micronucleus assay

Abstract

Context: Although patients with acromegaly may have an increased risk of developing several types of cancers, the degree of risk for malignancy in these patients is unresolved. Objective: The present study aimed to investigate the potential genotoxic effects of acromegaly on the cell cycle in peripheral blood lymphocyte cultures. Design: This was a single center, crossover, case-control study conducted on the acromegalic patients in Turkey. Setting: The study was conducted in the outpatient clinic of a university hospital. Patients: Seventy-one consecutively screened acromegalic patients and 56 controls participated in the study. Intervention: Patients were included, regardless of the disease activity status and their treatment duration before the study. Main Outcome Measures: The primary end point was the frequency of micronucleus (MN) in the peripheral blood lymphocyte cultures, and the secondary end point was its clinical correlations. Results: The MN level was 3.82 +/- 1.49 in the control group and 18.00 +/- 6.13 in the acromegalic group (P < .01), whereas the nuclear division index (NDI) was 1.79 +/- 0.12 in the control group and 1.68 +/- 0.07 in the acromegalic group (P < .01). Neither MN nor NDI was correlated with age, GH, IGF-I, initial GH, initial IGF-I, duration of the remission period, and initial tumor size. Only the MN level was positively correlated with the duration of disease (r = 0.323, P = .014). Conclusion: Our results indicated that acromegalic patients had genotoxic damage at a substantial level, and there was a positive correlation between the duration of disease and genotoxicity level.