1258 June 2013 NITROUS oxide has long been known to be an impotent and unpredictable human anesthetic.1 In this issue of the journal, Chen et al.2 report that nitrous oxide in clinical use is a potent and predictable human genotoxin. The authors observe that maintenance of anesthesia with 70% nitrous oxide and sevoflurane in patients undergoing colorectal surgery doubles the incidence of DNA da...

The aim of this study was to use the Comet assay to assess genetic damage in the direct-developing frog Eleutherodactylus johnstonei. A DNA diffusion assay was used to evaluate the effectiveness of alkaline, enzymatic and alkaline/enzymatic treatments for lysing E. johnstonei blood cells and to determine the amount of DNA strand breakage associated with apoptosis and necrosis. Cell sensitivity ...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the genotoxic effects of a crude extract of khat (Catha edulis, Forsk) leaves in rats. Two groups were fed khat crude extract, 1000 and 2000mg/kg body weight, for 90 days and were compared with a control group. The alkaline (pH>13) version of comet assay was used in this study. However, no previous published work has been undertaken and showed the effect of...

The in vivo alkaline single cell gel electrophoresis assay, hereafter the Comet assay, can be used to investigate the genotoxicity of industrial chemicals, biocides, agrochemicals and pharmaceuticals. The major advantages of this assay include the relative ease of application to any tissue of interest, the detection of multiple classes of DNA damage and the generation of data at the level of th...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the genotoxic potential of components leached from two conventional self-curing glass-ionomer cements (Fuji IX and Ketac Molar), and light-curing, resin modified glass-ionomer cements (Vitrebond, Fuji II LC). Evaluation was performed on human lymphocytes using alkaline and hOGG1 modified comet, and micronucleus assays. Each material, polymerised and unp...

The present study evaluated the basal DNA damage and the cellular response to this damage induced by in vitro administration of Etoposide in lymphocytes donated by twenty untreated breast cancer (BC) patients and twenty age-matched healthy women. Micronucleus (MN) and alkaline Comet assays were performed in cultured peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) according to a standard protocol for in vitr...

BACKGROUND The analysis of sperm DNA fragmentation has become a new marker to predict male infertility, and many techniques have been developed. The sperm Comet assay offers the possibility of differentiating single- and double-stranded DNA (ssDNA and dsDNA) breaks, which could have different effects on fertility. The objective of this study was to perform a descriptive characterization of diff...

This paper presents an evaluation of the genotoxic effects of cadmium chloride (CdCl2 ) on marine gastropod, Nerita chamaeleon following the technique of comet assay and the DNA alkaline unwinding assay (DAUA). In this study, the extent of DNA damage in gill cells of N. chamaeleon was measured after in vivo exposure to four different concentrations (10, 25, 50, and 75 µg/L) of CdCl2 . In vitro ...

OBJECTIVES Emodin is a bioactive anthraquinone that has diverse biological effects. It is also known as a biosynthetic precursor of hypericin. The purpose of this study was to assess mechanisms of potential genotoxic and antioxidant effects of emodin. We also investigated the potential genotoxic effect of photoactivated emodin. METHODS Potential genotoxicity was determined by the alkaline com...