Micronucleated erythrocytes in splenectomized patients with and without chemotherapy

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the range of micronucleated erythrocytes (MNE) in peripheral blood from splenectomized patients with and without genotoxic chemotherapy. The erythrocytes were stained with Wright and Giemsa for microscopic observation. To estimate the number of MNE, two series of 10 000 erythrocytes per sample were analyzed and averaged. The results expressed as mean ± standard deviation were as follows: control patients with genotoxic chemotherapy (n=6) 2.5 ± 1.5 (range 1 to 5 MNE); splenectomized patients with genotoxic chemotherapy (n=7) 65.2 ± 17.7 (range: 47–108) MNE and splenectomized patients without genotoxic chemotherapy (n=13) 29.5 ± 5.8 MNE; (range: 18.5–35.6). The MNE number in the patients treated with genotoxic chemotherapy depended on the type of drugs utilized: cyclophosphamide, mitoxantrone, vincristine, busulphan, cytosine arabinoside and hydroxyurea. Upon these results, it is suggested that splenectomized people could be useful in monitoring exposures, and the baseline MNE level would serve as each person's pre-exposure control when either chronic or acute exposure to environmental mutagens is investigated.