Tap Water Induces DNA Damage In The Nucleoid Of Smeared Lymphocytes In Comet Assay - An Incidental Finding

Surraj Susai; Parkash Chand; Vishnu Bhat Ballambattu; Nandeesha Hanumanthappa; Daisy Loyola

Volume : IX, Issue : VI, June - 2020

Tap Water Induces DNA Damage In The Nucleoid Of Smeared Lymphocytes In Comet Assay - An Incidental Finding

Surraj Susai, Parkash Chand, Vishnu Bhat Ballambattu, Nandeesha Hanumanthappa, Daisy Loyola

Abstract :

During a routine comet assay procedure that was done in the anatomy lab of a tertiary care institute, as part of a research protocol, an accidental observation was made when tap water was used by chance, instead of distilled water during the electrophoresis step of the procedure(5), that led to increased DNA damage levels in the smeared agarose petrified lymphocytes of children, when compared to the baseline values that were usually expected(2–4). This led to the observation that tap water may be used to detect mild DNA damages in hypoxic children very sensitively. However, using tap water has its own strengths and weaknesses that are explained by the authors in this article