Hellman B, Vaghef H, Friis L, Edling C
Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden.
Int Arch Occup Environ Health. 1997;69(3):185-92. doi: 10.1007/s004200050135.
Alkaline single cell gel electrophoresis (also known as the 'comet assay') is a rapid method for detecting DNA strand breaks in individual cells. Before the assay is used for biomonitoring in human populations the test conditions must be accurately characterised. Five healthy male volunteers donating capillary blood over a period of 20 weeks showed a fairly stable level of DNA damage in their lymphocytes. The values for tail moment and tail inertia, as evaluated by computerised image analysis of coded samples, were similar to those in lymphocytes from control mice but only 10% of those in lymphocytes from mice given cyclophosphamide (200 mg/kg b.wt.) 15-17 h before sacrifice. Inter- and intraindividual variations among the human subjects were related to both individual factors and laboratory conditions. When the comet assay is used for biomonitoring purposes it is suggested that each electrophoresis session should include not only the coded samples from the subjects, but also freshly isolated control cells and, in addition, cells that have been exposed to a well-characterised genotoxic insult.
碱性单细胞凝胶电泳（也称为“彗星试验”）是一种检测单个细胞中DNA链断裂的快速方法。在该试验用于人群生物监测之前，必须准确表征测试条件。五名健康男性志愿者在20周内捐献毛细血管血，其淋巴细胞中的DNA损伤水平相当稳定。通过对编码样本进行计算机图像分析评估的尾矩和尾惯性值，与对照小鼠淋巴细胞中的值相似，但仅为在处死前15 - 17小时给予环磷酰胺（200 mg/kg体重）的小鼠淋巴细胞中值的10%。人类受试者之间的个体间和个体内差异与个体因素和实验室条件均有关。当彗星试验用于生物监测目的时，建议每次电泳实验不仅应包括受试者的编码样本，还应包括新鲜分离的对照细胞，此外，还应包括已暴露于特征明确的遗传毒性损伤的细胞。
