Chromosome aberrations, apoptosis, and DNA repair in peripheral blood lymphocytes in children with infectious mononucleosis.

Infectious mononucleosis is associated with suppression of lymphocyte apoptosis and accumulation of cells with chromosome aberrations in the peripheral blood. The type and severity of these aberrations do not depend on the etiological variant of infection and patient age. At the same time in 3-6-year-old children with infectious mononucleosis caused by Epstein-Barr virus we observed activation of DNA repair system in lymphoid cells.