Evaluation of radiation dosage relationship to DNA cell damage using comet test

Nucleic acid (DNA) damage caused by radiation or other factors may lead to more suffering effects such as cancer cells. Therefore it needs a detection method to determine the extent of these damages, one of them is comet test that is a simple method. The Aim of the research was to assess radiation effects on lymphocyte cells caused by radiation using comet test. Blood specimen was irradiated with gamma rays at doses of 2-8 Gy and then lymphocytes were isolated with histopaque. Isolated lymphocyte to proceed comet test in alkali condition and their images were analyzed with special software. Results showed that there is a positive correlation of comet with radiation dose, higher dose caused higher DNA damage. Among parameters of comet test, tail DNA gave the best correlation with dose of radiation. It can be concluded that comet test is a fit method to evaluated radiation induced DNA damage. (author)