Aberrations in Chromosomes of Peripheral Lymphocytes of Male Homosexuals Predisposed to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome

Patients with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) often develop Kaposi's sarcoma, Burkitt-like lymphoma, or squamous cell carcinoma (1). Investigators have described specific chromosomal aberrations in Burkitt's lymphoma type tumors in patients with AIDS (2-4). Preleukemia is associated with chromosomal aberrations (5). Given the frequent occurrence of malignancy in AIDS, we examined peripheral blood from homosexual men with AIDS and at risk for AIDS for chromosomal aberrations. We karyotyped 1738 mitoses of lymphocytes of 19 sexually active homosexual men, and 854 mitoses from three healthy heterosexual controls. Five of the homosexual men had persistent lymph node enlargement, and two had AIDS. One of the latter patients experienced opportunistic infections and the other Kaposi's sarcoma. We applied the methotrexate-thymidine-actinomycin D technique (6) which offers optimal high resolution of chromosomes. We found significant abnormalities in the structure of chromosome chromatin, number of chromosomes, structural aberrations which were mostly due to translocations, and specific breakpoint sites of the rearrangements and simple breaks in lymphocytes from homosexual men. Our findings may be due to exposure to agents or factors associated with the lifestyle of some homosexual men.