The formamidopyrimidine DNA glycosylase (Fpg)-modified comet assay is widely used for the measurement of oxidatively generated damage to DNA. However, there has not been a recommended long-term positive control for this version of the comet assay. We have investigated potassium bromate as a positive control for the Fpg-modified comet assay because it generates many Fpg-sensitive sites with a little concurrent g...
The comet assay is widely used in biomonitoring studies for the analysis of DNA damage in leukocytes and peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Rather than processing blood samples directly, it can be desirable to cryopreserve whole blood or isolated cells for later analysis by the comet assay. However, this creates concern about artificial accumulation of DNA damage during cryopreservation. In this study, 10 labo...
Measurement of DNA migration in the comet assay can be done by image analysis or visual scoring. The latter accounts for 20%-25% of the published comet assay results. Here we assess the intra- and inter-investigator variability in visual scoring of comets. We include three training sets of comet images, which can be used as reference for researchers who wish to use visual scoring of comets. Investigators in 11 ...
The comet assay is a simple and versatile method for measurement of DNA damage in eukaryotic cells. More specifically, the assay detects DNA migration from agarose gel-embedded nucleoids, which depends on assay conditions and the level of DNA damage. Certain steps in the comet assay procedure have substantial impact on the magnitude of DNA migration (e.g. electric potential and time of electrophoresis). Inter-l...
The comet assay or single cell gel electrophoresis is the most common method used to measure strand breaks and a variety of other DNA lesions in human populations. To estimate the risk of overall mortality, mortality by cause, and cancer incidence associated with DNA damage, a cohort of 2,403 healthy individuals (25,978 person-years) screened in 16 laboratories using the comet assay between 1996 and 2016 was fo...
The alkaline comet assay, or single cell gel electrophoresis, is one of the most popular methods for assessing DNA damage in the human population. One of the open issues concerning this assay is the identification of those factors that can explain the large inter-individual and inter-laboratory variation. International collaborative initiatives such as the hCOMET project - a COST Action launched in 2016 - repre...
The alkaline comet assay, or single cell gel electrophoresis, is one of the most popular methods for assessing DNA damage in human population. One of the open issues concerning this assay is the identification of those factors that can explain the large inter-individual and inter-laboratory variation. International collaborative initiatives such as the hCOMET project - a COST Action launched in 2016 - represent...
The comet assay or single cell gel electrophoresis, is the most common method used to measure strand breaks and a variety of other DNA lesions in human populations. To estimate the risk of overall mortality, mortality by cause, and cancer incidence associated to DNA damage, a cohort of 2,403 healthy individuals (25,978 person-years) screened in 16 laboratories using the comet assay between 1996 and 2016 was fol...
The comet assay is a well-accepted biomonitoring tool to examine the effect of dietary, lifestyle, environmental and occupational exposure on levels of DNA damage in human cells. With such a wide range of determinants for DNA damage levels, it becomes challenging to deal with confounding and certain factors are interrelated (e.g. poor nutritional intake may correlate with smoking status). This review describes ...
The comet assay is a popular assay in biomonitoring studies. DNA strand breaks (or unspecific DNA lesions) are measured using the standard comet assay. Oxidative stress-generated DNA lesions can be measured by employing DNA repair enzymes to recognise oxidatively damaged DNA. Unfortunately, there has been a tendency to fail to report results from assay controls (or maybe even not to employ assay controls). We b...