Markers of genomic instability in patients with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract

Research purpose. To determine the state of the genome instability in patients with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and to assess its dependence on biological (age and sex) and clinical (form and variant of the flow of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, its activity, duration, functional class and serotype of the patient) parameters.Material and methods: 95 children were surveyed. Among them, 68 (39 girls and 29 boys) – with various forms of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, 12 – without treatment (at the stage of verification of the diagnosis). The control group consisted of 15 conditionally healthy children aged 3 to 16 years. To assess the genome instability, the method of determination of micronuclei in peripheral blood binuclear lymphocytes under the conditions of a cytochalasin block (in vitro) was used.Results: All examined children in the active form of the disease showed a significant increase in the level of binuclear lymphocytes with micronuclei in lymphocytes compared with a group of conditionally healthy children. The maximum values of this indicator were observed in the age group from 5 to 10 years and in children with a disease duration of up to 1 year. As the activity of the process increases, the level of binuclear lymphocytes with micronuclei rises. After treatment, a significant decrease in the indicator content was detected in patients with the II degree of disease activity in both cases of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.Conclusion. Statistically significant increase in the level of binuclear lymphocytes with micronuclei in peripheral blood lymphocytes may indicate the formation of genome instability in children as a pathogenetic part in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.