The structure of the human cell interphase chromatin in the mosaic form of Down's disease.

Abstract

In an earlier publication we reported that, by using fluorescent microscopy with acridine orange (AO), we detected certain changes in the structure and function of interphase nuclear chromatin of peripheral blood lymphocytes of subjects with Down's disease (Fedorova, Inshakova and Spitkovsky, 1975). By employing the same method with additional thermal action on the cells studied it was shown that some of these changes were conditioned by the effect of the blood serum from a person with Down's syndrome (Fedorova and Spitkovsky, 1976). The purpose of the present work was to investigate the structure of the interphase chromatin of both disomic and trisomic human cells residing in the same serum, that is, in mosaic subjects. Small lymphocytes in the peripheral blood of mosaic mongols were selected for study, complete trisomic mongols and healthy subjects being used as controls.