Gunasekarana Vidya, Raj Gladwin Victor, Chand Parkash
Senior Resident, Department of Anatomy, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research , Puducherry, India .
Assistant Professor, Department of Anatomy, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research , Puducherry, India .
J Clin Diagn Res. 2015 Mar;9(3):GE01-5. doi: 10.7860/JCDR/2015/12062.5622. Epub 2015 Mar 1.
Increased levels of DNA damage and ineffective repair mechanisms are the underlying bio-molecular events in the pathogenesis of most of the life-threatening diseases like cancer and degenerative diseases. The sources of DNA damage can be either exogenous or endogenous in origin. Imbalance between the oxidants and antioxidants resulting in increased reactive oxygen species mostly accounts for the endogenously derived attacks on DNA. Among the various methods employed in the estimation of DNA damage, alkaline comet assay is proven to be a relatively simple and versatile tool in the assessment of DNA damage and also in determining the efficacy of DNA repair mechanism. The aim of this article is to review the application of comet assay in the field of medicine towards human biomonitoring, understanding the pathogenesis of cancer and progression of chronic and degenerative diseases, prediction of tumour radio & chemosensitivity and in male infertility. A standardized protocol and analysis system of various variants of comet assay in different types of cells, across the labs will be of useful and reliable clinical tool in the field of Medicine for the estimation of levels of DNA damage and repair mechanisms.
DNA损伤水平的升高和无效的修复机制是大多数危及生命的疾病（如癌症和退行性疾病）发病机制中的潜在生物分子事件。DNA损伤的来源可以是外源性的，也可以是内源性的。氧化剂和抗氧化剂之间的失衡导致活性氧增加，这主要是内源性DNA攻击的原因。在评估DNA损伤所采用的各种方法中，碱性彗星试验被证明是评估DNA损伤以及确定DNA修复机制功效的一种相对简单且通用的工具。本文的目的是综述彗星试验在医学领域中用于人体生物监测、理解癌症发病机制以及慢性和退行性疾病进展、预测肿瘤放射和化学敏感性以及男性不育症方面的应用。在不同实验室中针对不同类型细胞的彗星试验各种变体的标准化方案和分析系统，将成为医学领域中用于估计DNA损伤水平和修复机制的有用且可靠的临床工具。
