title: The International Comet Assay Workshop.
abstract: The Comet (single cell gel electrophoresis) assay primarily measures DNA strand breakage in single cells (Singh et al., 1988). Briefly, cells are suspended in low melting point agarose on a microscope slide. The slides are put in lysing buffer to allow the DNA to unwind and then in electrophoresis buffer. During electrophoresis the broken DNA moves towards the anode forming a Comet tail, with the greater the extent of damage, the greater the tail. Assays can be conducted under neutral or alkaline (> pH 13) conditions. Double-strand breaks are measured under neutral conditions and single-strand breaks under alkaline conditions, where abasic sites and other alkali-labile sites or intermediates in base or nucleotide excision repair can also be detected. There are several good reviews concerning the assay (McKelvey-Martin et al., 1993; Fairbairn et al., 1995; Tice, 1995).
authors.affiliation: BIBRA International, Carshalton, Surrey, UK. danderson@bibra.co.uk
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Plewa
mesh_terms: D002457:Cell Extracts / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics*; D002460:Cell Line; D002985:Clinical Protocols; D004249:DNA Damage; D004260:DNA Repair; D004587:Electrophoresis, Agar Gel / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D005854:Germ Cells / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D006822:Hybrid Cells / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D002457:Cell Extracts