Maternal exercise before and during pregnancy protects against genotoxicity and promotes offspring hippocampal health in mice prenatally exposed to high fructose.

The fetal brain is susceptible to programming effects during pregnancy, potentially leading to long-term consequences for offspring's cognitive health. Fructose intake is thought to adversely affect fetal brain development, whereas physical exercise before and during pregnancy may be protective. Therefore, this study aimed to assess biochemical and genotoxic changes in maternal hippocampi and behavioral, genotoxic, and biochemical alterations in offspring hippocampi.

Optimizing the Comet Assay-Based In Vitro DNA Repair Assay for Placental Tissue: A Pilot Study with Pre-Eclamptic Patients.

The comet assay-based in vitro DNA repair assay has become a common tool for quantifying base excision repair (BER) activity in human lymphocytes or cultured cells. Here, we optimized the protocol for studying BER in human placental tissue because the placenta is a non-invasive tissue for biomonitoring of early-life exposures, and it can be used to investigate molecular mechanisms associated with prenatal disorders. The optimal protein concentration of placental protein extracts for optimal damage recognition and incision was 2 mg protein/mL.

Further development of CometChip technology to measure DNA damage in vitro and in vivo: Comparison with the 2 gels/slide format of the standard and enzyme-modified comet assay.

DNA damage plays a pivotal role in carcinogenesis and other diseases. The comet assay has been used for more than three decades to measure DNA damages. The 1-2 gels/slide format is the most used version of the assay.