Abstract
Background: Evaluation of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)-strand break is important to elucidate the biological effect of ionizing radiations. The conventional methods for DNA-strand break evaluation have been achieved by Agarose gel electrophoresis and others using an electrical property of DNAs. Such kinds of DNA-strand break evaluation systems can estimate DNA-strand break, according to a molecular weight of DNAs. However, the conventional method needs pretreatment of the sample and a relatively long period for analysis. They do not have enough sensitivity to detect the strand break products in the low-dose region. Materials and Methods: The sample is water, methanol and plasmid DNA solution. The plasmid DNA pUC118 was multiplied by using Escherichia coli JM109 competent cells. The resonance frequency and Q-value were measured by means of microwave dielectric absorption spectroscopy. When a sample is located at a center of the electric field, resonance curve of the frequency that existed as a standing wave is disturbed. As a result, the perturbation effect to perform a resonance with different frequency is adopted. Results and Discussion: The resonance frequency shifted to higher frequency with an increase in a concentration of methanol as the model of the biological material, and the Q-value decreased. The absorption peak in microwave power spectrum of the double-strand break plasmid DNA shifted from the non-damaged plasmid DNA. Moreover, the sharpness of absorption peak changed resulting in change in Q-value. We confirmed that a resonance frequency shifted to higher frequency with an increase in concentration of the plasmid DNA. Conclusion: We developed a new technique for an evaluation of DNA damage. In this paper, we report the evaluation method of DNA damage using microwave dielectric absorption spectroscopy.