Effects of opiates and demographic factors on DNA repair synthesis in human leukocytes

Abstract

DNA repair synthesis in leukocytes stressed by far UV irradiation was studied in 90 normal individuals, 38 street-heroin addicts, and 18 methadone maintenance patients. Age, sex, coffee use, and alcohol use had no significant effect on the maximal repair synthesis response of the control subjects, but smoking tobacco significantly decreased the mean response and variance when compared with nonsmoking controls. Heroin addiction had an even more pronounced negative effect, and this may be related to the high rate of chromosome aberrations found in this population. Half of the addicts tested were incapable of repairing UV fluences one-quarter as large as those repaired by the control subjects (5 J/m2 and 20 J/m2, respectively) in the 2-hr assay period. Long-term methadone treatment ameliorated the effects of the street heroin, just as it resulted in a decrease of the chromosome aberration frequency.