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Updated: Oct 18, 2026
Use of Frozen Tissue in the Comet Assay for the Evaluation of DNA Damage
Published on: March 24, 2020
Detection of hypoxic cells in murine tumors using the comet assay: comparison with a conventional radiobiological
1Department of Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Shogoin. kei@kuhp.kyoto-u.ac.jp
Abstract:
The comet (single-cell electrophoresis) assay has been developed as a method for measuring DNA damage in single cells after irradiation. We have developed our own methods and image analysis system for the comet assay to identify hypoxic fractions. In vitro, we tested our system using a cultured tumor cell line (SCCVII). In vivo, we compared the hypoxic fractions detected by this assay with those determined by the in vivo-in vitro clonogenic assay using two rodent tumors (SCCVII/ C3H, EMT6/KU/balb/c), which exhibit different types of hypoxia: acute and chronic. In vitro, our method could differentiate hypoxic cells from oxic cells, using the parameter of tail moment. In vivo, there were good correlations between the hypoxic fractions determined by the comet assay and by the clonogenic assay, in SCCVII/C3H (r=0.85) and in EMT6/KU/balb/c (r=0.75) tumors. By comparison of the two methods in chronically hypoxic and acutely hypoxic tumors, we further confirmed that the comet assay is clinically useful for estimating hypoxic fractions of solid tumors.
