Spontaneous and clastogen induced chromosomal breakage in scleroderma.

Spontaneous and clastogen induced chromosomal damage was evaluated in lymphocytes of 10 patients with scleroderma and 21 controls. Peripheral blood lymphocytes from patients with scleroderma not only had elevated rates of spontaneous chromosomal damage (p = 0.002), but also bleomycin induced (p = 0.041), streptonigrin induced (p = 0.035), and 4-nitroquinoline-1-oxide induced (p = 0.032) chromosomal breakage. Our findings suggest that scleroderma lymphocytes may have a generalized susceptibility to DNA damage caused by free radicals.