Increased Dna Damage With Comet Assay İn Patients With Pulmonary Hypertension

Abstract

Purpose: In pulmonary hypertension (PH), pathologic lesions are characterized by oxidative stress and inflammatory processes. The purpose of our study was to investigate the potential contribution of DNA damage in PH. Materials and methods: The study comprised 28 treatment-naive PH patients (59.93±11.19 years) and 28 age- and sex-matched (59.86±11.92 years) healthy controls. All participants underwent a right-heart catheterization to confirm the diagnosis and to asses hemodynamics. Venous blood was obtained from participants. DNA damage were evaluated using the comet assay which is based on single cell gel electrophoresis and fluorescent microscopy and detects DNA damage prior to repair. Continuous data were reported as mean ± standard deviation (SD). Shapiro-Wilk tests were used for testing normality. Mann Whitney U test was used for independent groups. For categorical variables, Chi-square test was used. SPSS, 24.0 was used for statistical analyses and p value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The average pulmonary vascular resistance was 5.64±2.99 WU, mean right atrial pressure was 9.70±5.38 mmHg, cardiac index was 3.12±1.18 l/min/m2, mixed venous O2 saturation was 64.77±13.33%. DNA damage parameters such as tail length (24.02±11.34 vs. 16.88±3.55 μm, p=0.0001), tail moment (1.93±2.36 vs. 0.87±1.03 μm, p=0.013), tail migration (10.3±12.24 vs. 3.62±2.75, p=0.03) were significantly higher in patients with PH. Conslusion: These results suggest that patients with PH could have increased DNA damage before DNA repair mechanisms are at play. DNA damage could be contributing to the pathophysiology and may represent a novel pharmacological target in PH. © 2019, Pamukkale University. All rights reserved.