background: it is established that sperm dna integrity is essential in fertilization and normal embryo and fetal development. routine semen analysis gives an approximate evaluation of the functional competence of spermatozoa, but does not always reflect the quality of sperm dna. therefore, the evaluation of sperm dna integrity, in addition to routine sperm parameters, could add further informat...

Investigation of DNA damages induced by heavy ions is of great interest for a better understanding of the processes which appear in clinical radiotherapy and are responsible for the destruction of the cancer cells. The most serious damages of DNA molecules are doublestrand breaks (DSB), i.e. the rupture of both DNA strands in the range of a few base pairs and single-strand breaks (SSB), when on...

Anhydrobiosis is a highly stable state of suspended animation in an organism due to its desiccation, which is followed by recovery after rehydration. Changes occurring during drying could damage molecules, including DNA. Using the anhydrobiotic tardigrade Paramacrobiotus richtersi as a model organism, we have evaluated the effects of environmental factors, such as temperature and air humidity l...

Background: Diabetes mellitus as a chronic disease can cause fertility problems in male human population. In fact, it exerts sever damages in testicular tissue and subsequently reduces total number of normal sperms and semen volume. Therefore, this study is designed to evaluate the protective effect of Equisetum arvense extract on sperm quality, DNA damage and maturation in diabetic male mice. ...

Ionizing radiation produces both singly and multiply damaged DNA sites. Multiply damaged sites (MDS) have been implicated in radiation-induced cell killing and mutagenesis. The spatial distribution of elementary damages (strand breaks and base damages) that constitute MDS is of special interest, since the complexity of MDS has an impact on damage repair. A fast and easy-to-implement algorithm t...

In this work we wanted to verify that photoactivation of DNA-non-binding porphyrin derivative hematoporphyrin IX (Hp) is able to induce damages in DNAs of various accessibilities such as B-conformation and superhelical isolated DNA, nucleoprotein complex and intracellular DNAs. It was found that photodynamic reaction of Hp results significant changes in thermal stability of isolated T7 DNA and ...

Molds thrive in indoor environments, challenging the stability of building materials and occupants’ health. Diverse sampling analytical techniques can be applied microbiology buildings, with specific benefits drawbacks. We evaluated use two methods, microscopy visible mold growth (hereinafter “mold” samples) (tape lifts) DNA metabarcoding dust samples (swabs), for mapping mold-damage indicator ...