Application of the comet assay in human biomonitoring: an hCOMET perspective

Publication date: Available online 9 November 2019Source: Mutation Research/Reviews in Mutation ResearchAuthor(s): Amaya Azqueta, Carina Ladeira, Lisa Giovannelli, Elisa Boutet-Robinet, Stefano Bonassi, Monica Neri, Goran Gajski, Susan Duthie, Cristian Del Bo’, Patrizia Riso, Gudrun Koppen, Nursen Basaran, Andrew Collins, Peter MøllerAbstractThe comet assay is a well-accepted biomonitoring tool to examine the effect of dietary, lifestyle, environmental and occupational exposure on levels of DNA damage in human cells. With such a wide range of determinants for DNA damage levels, it becomes challenging to deal with confounding and certain factors are inter-related (e.g. poor nutritional intake may correlated with smoking status). This review describes the effect of intrinsic (i.e. sex, age, tobacco smoking, occupational exposure and obesity) and extrinsic (season, environmental exposures, dietary factors, physical activity and alcohol consumption) factors on the level of DNA damage measured by the standard or enzyme-modified comet assay. Although each factor influences at least one comet assay endpoint, the collective evidence does not indicate single factors have a large impact. Thus, controlling for confounding may be necessary in a biomonitoring, but none of the factors is strong enough to be regarded a priori as a confounder. Controlling for confounding in the comet assay requires a case-by-case approach. Inter-laboratory variation in levels of DNA damage and to some ext...
Source: Mutation Research Reviews in Mutation Research - Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Source Type: research