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HELIX3 INC. |
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The Comet Assay |
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Description
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The comet or single cell gel (SCG) assay measures DNA damage (e.g., strand breaks, alkali labile sites, excision repair sites, and cross links) at the single cell level. Without the necessity for special cell isolation techniques, a small amount of cells is embedded in an agarose gel matrix on a microscope slide and lysed to remove the cell membrane and most of the cellular proteins.
Once the cells are lysed, an electric current is applied to the nuclear DNA causing DNA fragments to migrate away from the nucleus or “head” of the comet at a rate and distance directly proportional to the size of the fragment. These migrated fragments can then be measured to determine DNA migration levels as an indication of damage and/or repair in a population of cells.
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Comet Assay News |
