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NEW YORK (Reuters Health), Tue Mar 8, 2005
While smoking is known to have
a number of adverse effects on pregnancy, there has been
limited information about on any
possible genetic damage to the fetus, according to the report
in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.
To investigate, Dr. Josep Egozcue, from Universitat Autonoma
de Barcelona and colleagues analyzed fetal cells obtained during
routine amniocentesis from 25 women who smoked and 25 controls.
The women in the smoking group smoked at least 10 cigarettes
per day.
The rate of structural chromosomal abnormalities in
the smoking group was 12.1 percent, much higher than the rate
seen in controls -- 3.5 percent -- the researchers report.
Analysis of the 689 breakpoints identified revealed that one
at a specific location of chromosome 11, which is often tied
to blood cancers like leukemia, was most commonly affected
by smoking.
In a related editorial, Dr. David M. DeMarini and
Dr. R. Julian Preston, from the US Environmental Protection
Agency in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, comment that
the current study represents "the first report of tobacco-smoke-associated
genotoxic damage in fetal epithelial cells from mothers who
smoke."
Still, the study does have certain limitations, such
as no direct or indirect measure of smoke exposure, and, therefore,
the findings should be regarded as preliminary, they add.
SOURCE: Journal of the American Medical Association, March
9, 2005.
© Reuters
2005
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