Evaluation of DNA damages in congenital hearing loss patients

Abstract

In the current study, we aimed to compare the level of genetic damages measured as micronucleus (MN), nucleoplasmic bridge (NPB), and nuclear bud formation (NBUD) in congenital hearing loss patients (n = 17) and control group (n = 24). The cytokinesis-blocked micronucleus assay (CBMN) as applied to the blood samples to measure the frequency of the markers in both groups. The frequencies of MN of hearing loss patients were found to be consistently significantly higher than those obtained for the control group (p < 0.0001). Similarly, we found significantly higher frequency of NPB in patients was obtained for the patient group (p < 0.0001). Finally, the frequencies of NBUD in patients is significantly higher than the level measured in the control group (p < 0.0001). Furthermore, the age-adjusted MNL, BNMN, NPB, and NBUD frequencies in the patients were significantly higher than those obtained in the control group. We observed that the frequency of MN in patients was positivelycorrelated with NBUD frequency which may indicate a common mechanism for these biomarkers in the patientgroup. We found, for the first time, that there were statistically significant higher levels of MN, NPB, and NBUDin sensorineural hearing loss patients. Since the markers we evaluated were linked with crucial diseases, ourfindings might suggest that sensorineural hearing loss patients are susceptible to several crucial diseases, espe-cially cancer. Furthermore, the results demonstrated the significance of the MN, NPB, and NBUD level and thusprovides a potential marker for the diagnosis of congenital hearing loss patients.