Chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes or cancer are the global leading cause of mortality. Lifestyle interventions are most effective in reducing metabolic risk factors, disease progression or even side effects of a disease. They are also contributing to decelerate the aging process. Genome instability is very often associated with aging or the above-mentioned diseases, and triggered by inflammation and oxidative stress. An established method to measure chromosomal damage is the cytokinesis block micronucleus (CBMN) cytome assay. The aim of this review and meta-analysis is to collect and analyse the current literature regarding the effects of a lifestyle based (dietary) intervention on changes of micronuclei (MNi), nucleoplasmic bridges (NPBs) and nuclear buds (NBUDs) in elderly subjects or people diagnosed with diabetes, metabolic disorders, cardiovascular disease, cancer or micronutrient deficiency. Although the main important diseases were considered as well as the large topic of aging, the number and methodological quality in terms of samples size, duration and rationale of the intervention or an inclusion of a control group of available intervention studies with these backgrounds was low. Most of the studies used antioxidant vitamins or folate, few investigated the whole diet. Only one study showed a physical activity intervention approach. The interventions did not lead to decreased genomic marker despite a few cancer related studies, where particularly MN frequency in mucosa lesions and leukoplakia was reduced by green tea and antioxidants. The performed meta-analysis of the available RCTs did not show a significant reduction of MNi, NBUDs or NPBs of most of the interventions performed, except for green tea. Data show in general a lack of an appropriate number of sound lifestyle based intervention studies linking cytogenetic damage and chronic diseases.
Keywords: Cancer; Cytotoxicity; Diabetes mellitus; Elderly; Human intervention; Micronuclei; Micronutrients; Nutrition; Physical activity.
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