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Updated: Aug 20, 2026

CometChip: A High-throughput 96-Well Platform for Measuring DNA Damage in Microarrayed Human Cells
Published on: October 18, 2014
[Sensitivity comparison of DNA damage and repair capacity in TK6 and WTK1 cells]
Jian-qing Zhang1, Li-shi Zhang, Rui-shu Wang
1Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, West China School of Public Health, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China.
Objective:
Explore the mechanisms of DNA damage and repair capacity in TK6 and WTK1 cells that are derived from the same parental cell line WI-L2 (tk+/+) human diploid lymphoblastoid cells but are different in their p53 gene status.
Methods:
The TK6 and WTK1 cells treated with H2O2 were detected by single cell gel electrophoresis. Then a comparison was made on the comet cell rate, comet cell tail length and p53 protein expression level between TK6 and WTK1.
Results:
TK6 was more sensitive to DNA damage and its repair capacity was more quick and effective when compared with WTK1. Both TK6 and WTK1 cells showed effective post-damage repair capacity in incubation time of 0.5 h to 1 h. The background level of P53 protein in WTK1 was higher than that in TK6, but the level of P53 protein in H2O2-treated TK6 increased significantly higher than that in H2O2-treated WTK1.
Conclusion:
TK6 and WTK1 cells serve as a good biological experiment system for DNA damage sensitivity and repair capacity researches in the field of toxicology. TK6 is more sensitive to DNA damage, and it increases faster and higher than WTK1 after DNA being damaged. A possible explanation is that TK6 cell is of the p53 gene wild-type and WTK1 cell is of the mutant-type and they make different responses to the same chemical.
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