Role of clozapine in the occurrence of chromosomal abnormalities in human bone-marrow cells in vivo and in cultured lymphocytes in vitro

✍ Scribed by Sakari Knuutila; Eila Helminen; Leena Knuutila; Seppo Leisti; Martti Siimes; Paavo Tammisto; Tuomas Westermarck

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1977
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 667 KB
• Volume: 38
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0340-6717
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00295810

✦ Synopsis

Bone-marrow chromosomes were examined from 38 mentally and physically retarded and two psychiatric patients who were being treated with a variety of neuropharmacologic drugs. Twenty of these patients used clozapine (Leponex). The clastogenic effects of clozapine in vitro were studied in the lymphocyte cultures of three patients--one free of hematologic disease and two who 6 months earlier had had agranulocytosis attributed to the use of clozapine. The mean frequency of cytogenetic abnormalities in the bone-marrow cells of patients who used clozapine was significantly increased (P less than 0.05). The two patients who had had agranulocytosis had a greater frequency of cytogenetic abnormalities in their cultured lymphocytes in vivo and in vitro than the patient free of hematologic disease. A clone with a 13/14 chromosome translocation was detected in one of the patients. As all patients received a number of drugs during the in vivo and in vitro studies no definite conclusions could be drawn regarding the role played by clozapine in the occurrence of chromosomal abnormalities.