Artículo de publicación ISIThe alkaline single-cell gel electrophoresis (SCGE)
assay, also called the comet assay, is a rapid and
simple method for the detection of DNA damage in
individual cells. The objective of this study was to
establish if the alkaline SCGE assay in whole blood
cells gives similar results as the same method in
isolated lymphocytes, because whole blood cells are
simpler and more economical to use, specifically in
human genotoxic biomonitoring. To validate the
method, we first used mouse blood cells, because
mouse is one of the most commonly used animals in
genetic toxicology testing. Groups of seven CF1 male
mice were given i.p. injections of relatively low doses
of methyl methanesulfonate (25 mg/kg body weight), a
direct acting genotoxic agent, or cyclophosphamide
(50 mg/kg body weight), which requires metabolic
activation. Three, 6, 8, 12, 16, 20, and 65 hours after
treatment, 5 ML of blood were collected from each
animal and were processed for the alkaline SCGE
assay. On the basis of an analysis of tail moment, the
results showed that this assay can detect DNA damage
induced by both kinds of alkylating mutagens. We
then did a preliminary study to assess the status of
DNA damage in a young (19 to 23 years old) healthy
population of male smokers (n = 6) and nonsmokers
(n = 6) using the comet assay in whole blood cells.
A significant difference was observed between the
two groups, showing that the method is able to detect
DNA damage in the smoking group despite
the short time that the volunteers had actually been
smoking