Patients with Systemic Sclerosis Present Increased DNA Damage Differentially Associated with DNA Repair Gene Polymorphisms

Abstract

Objective.Patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) exhibit increased toxicity when exposed to genotoxic agents. In our study, we evaluated DNA damage and polymorphic sites in 2 DNA repair genes (XRCC1Arg399Gln andXRCC4Ile401Thr) in patients with SSc.Methods.A total of 177 patients were studied for DNA repair gene polymorphisms. Fifty-six of them were also evaluated for DNA damage in peripheral blood cells using the comet assay.Results.Compared to controls, the patients as a whole or stratified into major clinical variants (limited or diffuse skin involvement), irrespective of the underlying treatment schedule, exhibited increased DNA damage.XRCC1(rs: 25487) andXRCC4(rs: 28360135) allele and genotype frequencies observed in patients with SSc were not significantly different from those observed in controls; however, theXRCC1Arg399Gln allele was associated with increased DNA damage only in healthy controls and theXRCC4Ile401Thr allele was associated with increased DNA damage in both patients and controls. Further, theXRCC1Arg399Gln allele was associated with the presence of antinuclear antibody and anticentromere antibody. No association was observed between these DNA repair gene polymorphic sites and clinical features of patients with SSc.Conclusion.These results corroborate the presence of genomic instability in SSc peripheral blood cells, as evaluated by increased DNA damage, and show that polymorphic sites of theXRCC1andXRCC4DNA repair genes may differentially influence DNA damage and the development of autoantibodies.