E. Rojas et al., DNA-DAMAGE IN EXFOLIATED BUCCAL CELLS OF SMOKERS ASSESSED BY THE SINGLE-CELL GEL-ELECTROPHORESIS ASSAY, Mutation research. Genetic toxicology testing, 370(2), 1996, pp. 115-120
The alkaline single-cell gel electrophoresis assay or comet assay is a
sensitive and rapid method for DNA strand breaks and detection of alk
ali labile sites at the single cell level, it further provides informa
tion on the presence of damage among individual cells. In this paper w
e explore the use of this technique utilizing exfoliated buccal mucosa
cells from non-smokers (9 donors) and smokers (11 donors). The extent
of DNA image length was found to be significantly increased in the sm
oker group (89.30 +/- 16.18 mu m) than in the non-smoker group (52.01
+/- 10.43 mu m). Our results indicate that the single-cell gel electro
phoresis assay could be applied to human monitoring using exfoliated b
uccal epithelial cells.