title: Micronucleus formation in peripheral-blood lymphocytes from smokers and the influence of alcohol- and tea-drinking habits.
abstract: In recent years, studies on the genotoxic effects of smoking and its modifying factors have been widely followed with interest. In this report, frequencies of micronuclei (MNF) in peripheral-blood lymphocytes in 220 healthy smokers have been detected by the micronucleus test by finger-skin puncture, which needs only 1 to 2 drops of peripheral blood. On the basis of analysis of matched-pair data, the modifying effects of alcohol and tea are discussed. Our results show that (I) smoking significantly increases MNF in lymphocytes as compared with healthy non-smokers (p less than 0.01); (2) alcohol significantly increases MNF in smokers (p less than 0.01); (3) tea decreases MNF induced by smoking (p less than 0.01). Therefore, the anti-carcinogenic role of tea merits further study.
authors.affiliation: Cytogenetic Research Laboratory, Jiangsu Institute of Cancer Research, Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: K X
authors.initials: KX
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: G J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: P Q
authors.initials: PQ
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: R F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: W S
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Y Q
authors.initials: YQ
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000431:Ethanol / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006801:Humans; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D008297:Male; D015162:Micronucleus Tests; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D012907:Smoking / Q000473:pathology*; D013662:Tea
chemical_list: D013662:Tea; D000431:Ethanol