[Chromosome instability in patients with different forms of cardiomyopathy and their relatives].
Comparative studies on spontaneous and induced by two agents (mytomycin C and Nickel chloride) chromosome instability have been conducted in cultured lymphocytes derived from patients with hypertrophic and dilated forms of cardiomyopathy (HCMP and DCMP) and their relatives compiling a high-risk group to develop mentioned pathologies. In patients with HCMP and DCMP, as well as in their relatives higher levels of spontaneous chromosome instability were found in comparison with the control group (comprising healthy individuals without cardiomyopathic anamnesis). Almost all the affected patients and their relatives revealed tendency to increased aneuploidy and significant elevation of polyploidy when compared with control values. It was demonstrated that nickel chloride-induced chromosome disorders registered more frequently in lymphocytes of the patients and their relatives than in cells of control subjects, but mytomycin C did not have such an affect. We assume to explain the similarity of studied parameters in patients with cardiomyopathy and their relatives as a consequence of identical rearrangements in genome functioning. The revealed analogy should be interpreted as a pre-illness condition for the individuals included in the risk-group.