Expression of folate sensitive and aphidicolin induced
chromosomal fragile sites in familial neuroblastoma.
Ankathil R, Kusumakumary P, Priyakumary T, Krishnan Nair M.
Dept. of Cancer Research, Regional Cancer Centre, Kerala, India. rcctvm@md2.vsnl.net.in
The expression of folate sensitive and aphidicolin induced fragile sites in the
blood lymphocyte chromosomes of affected and unaffected members from 2
neuroblastoma families were studied. The subjects included 4 neuroblastoma
patients, and 9 of their clinically healthy first degree relatives and
corresponding number of age and sex matched controls. Lymphocytes cultured in
folate deprived culture medium showed rare fragile sites at band p13.1 of
chromosome 1, in a frequency of 3%-5% in all the 4 neuroblastoma patients. In
aphidicolin treated cultures, the patients and unaffected members in
neuroblastoma families, showed hypersensitivity to aphidicolin, as evidenced by
the significant increase in percentage of aberration/cell (ab/c) and damaged
cells (dc), over that of controls (P < 0.01). Aphidicolin induced fragile sites
were more pronounced in chromosomes 1 and 2. A larger number of subjects have to
be studied to prove whether altered fragile site expression may be a cytogenetic
evidence for an individual or familial cancer predisposing genetic constitution.
