dna damage in leukocytes from fanconi anemia (fa) patients and heterozygotes induced by mitomycin c and ionizing radiation as assessed by the comet and comet-fish assay

background: lymphocytes of fanconi anemia (fa) show an increased sensitivity to the alkylating agents such as mitomycin c (mmc), but their responses to gamma-irradiation is controversial. the extent of dna damage in leukocytes of fa patients following irradiation and mmc treatment was studied at cellular and single chromosome level. methods: dna damage induced by gamma-rays and mmc was measured in leukocytes of fa patients and carriers at whole genome level using the comet assay. also, at the dna level of specific chromosome involved in this disease using a modified comet-fish protocol with whole chromosome painting probes (chromosomes 16 and 13), dna damage in leukocytes of fa patients and heterozygotes were compared to healthy individuals. results: baseline dna damage in leukocytes of patients and heterozygotes was higher than in controls. net induced dna damage by gamma-rays in leukocytes of fa cases was not significantly different from that of healthy donors and heterozygotes. net induced dna damage by mmc was statistically higher and significantly different (p<0.05) in patients than other groups. hybridization of chromosome 16 reveals more signals in the tail but the number of spots in the tail was not significantly higher than the hybridization spots for chromosome 13 in both gamma-irradiated and mmc treated samples. conclusion: results indicate that dna damage induced by mmc could be a better index for diagnosis of fa patients compared to gamma-rays. results of comet-fish showed no difference between the sensitivity of chromosome 16 and 13 to mmc and radiation. it may indicate that, although the fa-a gene is located on chromosome 16, this chromosome might have a similar sensitivity as other chromosomes.