Cellular Reference Materials for DNA Damage Using Electrochemical Oxidation.

Reference materials are needed to quantify the level of DNA damage in cells, to assess sources of measurement variability and to compare results from different laboratories. The comet assay (single cell gel electrophoresis) is a widely used method to determine DNA damage in the form of strand breaks. Here we examine the use of electrochemical oxidation to produce DNA damage in cultured mammalian cells and quantify its percentage using the comet assay.