The Effects of Colchicine and D-Penicillamine on Sister Chromatid Exchange Frequencies in Patients with Systemic Sclerosis.

Purpose: Increased chromosomal breakage and rearrangements have been reported in cell cultures of blood, skin and aponeurosis in patients with systemic sclerosis (SS). Among the drugs used for SS, d-penicillamine have been shown to increase sister chromatid exchange (SCE) in vitro, whereas there exist no data available to our knowledge for colchicine. Method: SCE frequencies were searched in 27 non-smoking patients with SS (mean age ± SD; 46.0 ± 11.9; 3 males, 24 females) of whom 8 on only colchicine and 10 on only d-penicillamine. In nine patients SCE was also studied after 45 days of colchicines administration as well. Twenty-one non-smoking healthy individuals (mean age ± SD; 34.8 ± 8.2; 4 males, 17 females) were taken as the control group. Results: When patients on d-penicillamine were excluded, SCE values were comparable among the patients with colchicine users (6.24 ± 0.45, n = 8) and non-users (6.22 ± 0.26, n = 8). Similarly when colchicine users were excluded no significant difference was found in SCE values between patients on d-penicillamine (6.08 ± 0.24, n = 10) and patients that were not taking the drug (6.22 ± 0.26, n = 8). Initial SCE values and those after 45 days of colchicine commencement were comparable (n = 9; 6.17 ± 0.24 and 6.30 ± 0.39, respectively). Conclusion: Colchicine and d-penicillamine usage appears not to effect SCE rates in the studied patients with systemic sclerosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]