Related Experiment Videos
Induction and time course of DNA single-strand breaks in lymphocytes from patients treated with dacarbazine
1Department of Toxicology, National Institute of Occupational Health, Stockholm, Sweden.
Abstract:
Dacarbazine (DTIC) is an antitumor agent, used for the treatment of metastatic melanoma. It is metabolized to an alkylating agent which reacts with DNA. A fast and simple method was developed in order to measure drug-induced DNA damage in lymphocytes isolated from frozen blood samples of treated patients. The level of DNA damage was determined as single-strand breaks (SSB) by means of the alkaline elution technique using the fluorochrome Hoechst 33258. DTIC induced SSBs in lymphocytes. Most of the DNA damage was repaired after 20 h but after subsequent daily treatments there was an accumulation of SSB. The method described here can be used for monitoring DNA damage in lymphocytes of persons exposed to genotoxic compounds.