Detection of crosslinks with the comet assay

The comet assay detects a broad spectrum of DNA lesions but the standard pr otocol seems to be unsuited for the detection of crosslinking agents. Cross linking, (DNA-DNA or DNA-protein) can lead to an decrease in DNA migration and modifications of the comet assay have been established to study the eff ect of crosslinkers by measuring the inhibition of spontaneous or mutagen-i nduced DNA migration. We comparatively studied the sensitivity of the comet assay for the detection of various crosslinkers and tried to relate the ef fects in the comet assay to other genotoxic and cytotoxic effects to better understand the biological significance of comet assay results with crossli nking agents.