Idiopathic hemochromatosis and chromosomal damage.

Spontaneous and radiation-induced chromosome damage in cultured lymphocytes was examined in a pilot study of 11 patients with idiopathic hemochromatosis and matched controls. Increased frequencies of chromosome breaks were found in the patients, both spontaneously and after exposure to ionizing radiation, but the differences between patients and controls were not statistically significant (p greater than 0.05) when individual data were analyzed. When pooled (group) data for patients and controls were compared, significant increases in spontaneous and radiation-induced chromosome breaks were found among the patients. The results suggest that iron overload may lead to chromosome damage in idiopathic hemochromatosis.