The purpose of the "Micronuclei and Disease" special issue (SI) is to: (i) Determine the level of evidence for association of micronuclei (MN), a biomarker of numerical and structural chromosomal aberrations, with risk of specific diseases in humans; (ii) Define plausible mechanisms that explain association of MN with each disease; (iii) Identify knowledge gaps and research needed to translate MN assays into clinical practice. The "MN and Disease" SI includes 14 papers. The first is a review of mechanisms of MN formation and their consequences in humans. 11 papers are systematic reviews and/or meta-analyses of the association of MN with reproduction, child health, inflammation, auto-immune disease, glycation, metabolic diseases, chronic kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, eleven common cancers, ageing and frailty. The penultimate paper focuses on effect of interventions on MN frequency in the elderly. A road map for translation of MN data into clinical practice is the topic of the final paper. The majority of reviewed studies were case-control studies in which the ratio of mean MN frequency in disease cases relative to controls, i.e. the mean ratio (MR), was calculated. The mean of these MR values, estimated by meta-analyses, for lymphocyte and buccal cell MN in non-cancer diseases were 2.3 and 3.6 respectively, and for cancers they were 1.7 and 2.6 respectively. The highest MR values were observed in studies of cancer cases in which MN were measured in the same tissue as the tumour (MR = 4.9-10.8). This special issue is an important milestone in the evidence supporting MN as a reliable genomic biomarker of developmental and degenerative disease risk. These advances, together with results from prospective cohort studies, are helping to identify diseases in which MN assays can be practically employed in the clinical setting to better identify high risk patients and to prioritise them for preventive therapy.

中文翻译：

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“微核与疾病”特刊：目标、范围和结果的综合。

“微核与疾病”特刊 (SI) 的目的是： (i) 确定微核 (MN) 与人类特定疾病风险相关的证据水平，微核 (MN) 是数量和结构染色体畸变的生物标志物；(ii) 定义解释 MN 与每种疾病关联的合理机制；(iii) 确定将 MN 检测转化为临床实践所需的知识差距和研究。“MN 和疾病”SI 包括 14 篇论文。第一个是对 MN 形成机制及其对人类后果的回顾。11 篇论文是关于 MN 与生殖、儿童健康、炎症、自身免疫疾病、糖基化、代谢疾病、慢性肾病、心血管疾病、11 种常见癌症、衰老和虚弱之间关系的系统评价和/或荟萃分析。倒数第二篇论文侧重于干预对老年人 MN 频率的影响。将 MN 数据转化为临床实践的路线图是最终论文的主题。大多数审查的研究是病例对照研究，其中计算了疾病病例中平均 MN 频率相对于对照的比率，即平均比率 (MR)。通过荟萃分析估计，非癌症疾病中淋巴细胞和颊细胞 MN 的这些 MR 值的平均值分别为 2.3 和 3.6，对于癌症，它们分别为 1.7 和 2.6。在癌症病例研究中观察到最高 MR 值，其中在与肿瘤相同的组织中测量 MN (MR = 4.9-10.8)。这一特刊是支持 MN 作为发育和退行性疾病风险的可靠基因组生物标志物的证据中的一个重要里程碑。