Micronucleus assay of human lymphocytes: a comparison of cytokinesis-block and human capillary blood lymphocytes methods.

Micronucleus (MN) expression in Peripheral blood lymphocytes is well established as a method to monitor chromosome damage in human populations. The use of MN as a measure of chromosome damage in peripheral blood lymphocytes was first proposed by Countryman and Heddle and subsequently improved with the development of the cytokinesis-block micronucleus (CBMN) method, which has been extensively used to evaluate chromosome damage in human populations. Nevertheless, the CBMN method requires more blood collected by venous puncture, and the procedure detecting MN in cultured lymphocytes is time-consuming. In 1992, a method for MN testing of lymphocytes with human capillary blood collected by skin puncture was developed. The procedure was simple and fast because MNs were detected in non-cultured lymphocytes, and only 1 or 2 drops of capillary blood were needed, so it was called the human capillary blood lymphocytes MN (HCBL-MN) method. The present study gives the comparison of the results of MN frequency in human lymphocytes using the two methods in the same subjects in order to find a simple and sensitive method, to clarify the correlation between the two methods and to provide information on baseline MN frequency in human lymphocytes detected by the two methods.