• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.1025-1029
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• 2000

This study was conducted to investigate whether a DNA comet assay could be applied for identifying irradiated pork and beef. Pork and beef were irradiated with Co-60 gamma rays at 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7 and 1.0 kGy, and stored in a freezer Cells separated from the samples were embedded in agarose gel on a slide, dissolved in a lysis solution, and electrophoresed at 2 V/cm for 2.0 min by horizontal electrophoesis. The cells were then stained with a silver staining in order to visualize the DNA using a micro-scope. The DNA fragments of the irradiated cells stretched or migrated out of the cells and formed tails towards the anode, giving the appearance of comets, while unirradiated cells formed very short or no tails. The distance of DNA migration increased with irradiation dose. Since the statistical analysis showed a significant correlation between tail length and irradiation dose, a DNA comet assay could provide not only identification but also estimation of the irradiation dose for irradiated beef and pork.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.204-210
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• 2016

DNA damage responses are important for the maintenance of genome stability and the survival of organisms. Such responses are activated in the presence of DNA damage and lead to cell cycle arrest, apoptosis, and DNA repair. In Caenorhabditis elegans, double-strand breaks induced by DNA damaging agents have been detected indirectly by antibodies against DSB recognizing proteins. In this study we used a comet assay to detect DNA strand breaks and to measure the elimination of DNA strand breaks in mitotic germline nuclei of C. elegans. We found that C. elegans brc-1 mutants were more sensitive to ionizing radiation and camptothecin than the N2 wild-type strain and repaired DNA strand breaks less efficiently than N2. This study is the first demonstration of direct measurement of DNA strand breaks in mitotic germline nuclei of C. elegans. This newly developed assay can be applied to detect DNA strand breaks in different C. elegans mutants that are sensitive to DNA damaging agents.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.1071-1079
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• 2005

Using single cell gel electrophoresis, DNA single strand breaks were determined in various marine organisms. DNA damage on fish blood cells was detected to know whether there was a difference between Incheon, Pohang, Masan, and Tongyeong as a control site. Tongyeong showed the lowest DNA damage among the study areas. Mussels, transplanted to Masan Bay for one month, revealed high DNA damage at sites with high economical activity. In two weeks exposure of polychaete to Incheon sediments, higher DNA damage was detected in the sediment adjacent to Incheon harbor than open sea. These results suggested that the marine organism from the polluted area revealed a relatively high DNA damage. In addition, these areas might be contaminated with genotoxic compounds and comet assay was useful as a bioassay to detect DNA damage in marine organisms.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.440-447
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• 2004

In this study the in vitro protective effects of several antioxidant vitamins (vitamin C, $\alpha$-tocopherol, $\beta$-carotene), fruits and vegetables (strawberry, tangerine, orange and 100％ orange juice, carrot juice), on the levels of isolated human lymphocyte DNA damage was measured using Comet assay. Comet assay has been used widely to assess the level of the DNA damage in the individual cells. Lymphocytes were pre-treated for 30 minutes with antioxidant vitamins (10, 50, 100, 500 $\mu$M) or fruits$.$vegetables (10, 100, 500, 1000 $\mu$g/ml), an4 then oxidatively challenged with 100 $\mu$M $H_2O$$_2$ for 5 min at 4$^{\circ}C$. The protective effect of antioxidant vitamins against DNA damage at a concentration of 50 $\mu$M were 50％ in vitamin C, 32％ in $\alpha$-tocopherol, whereas, fJ-carotene showed a 55％ protection at a dose as low as 10 $\mu$M. The inhibitory effects of DNA damage by strawberry, tangerine, orange, orange juices, carrot juices were 50 - 60％ with wide ranges of doses. The results of the present study indicate that most the antioxidant vitamins and fruits$.$vegetables juices produced a significant reduction in oxidative DNA damage.

• Journal of Aquaculture
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.196-201
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• 2003

Sessile organisms such as the oyster Crassostrea gigas have been given much attention as a potential biomonitoring indicator to assess the impact of toxicants on aquatic organism. In this study, we exposed cells isolated from gill of oyster (Crassostrea gigas) to hydrogen peroxide in vitro. In addition oysters were in vivo exposed to pyrene and benzo(a)pyrene at various concentrations for 2 weeks. Comet assay was used to detect DNA single strand breaks and to investigate the application of this technique as a tool for aquatic biomonitoring. Hydrogen peroxide increased DNA single strand break with increasing concentration after 30 minutes exposure in vitro. Pyrene and benzo(a)pyrene caused DNA damage only at very high concentration (100 $\mu\textrm{g}$/L or 1000 $\mu\textrm{g}$/L) at two week exposure in vivo. DNA damage was relatively higher at hemocyte than at gill. It suggested that metabolized PAHs are transferred to hemolymph from digestive gland which have a relatively high enzyme activity, and attacked the DNA of hemocyte, while gill accumulated PAHs without degrading them to their metabolites due to low enzyme activity at gill. Both in vitro and in vivo exposure experiments showed that the comet assay is an effective tool on screening whether the organism are exposed to genotoxic contaminants.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.449-456
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• 2008

The flowers of Buddleja officinalis are used to treat sore and damaged eyes, a condition which is similar to skin wounds. However, whether it has any protective effect on oxidative DNA damage and cell death induced by hydroxyl radical remains unclear. In this study, we evaluated the protective effects of the extracts against oxidative DNA and cell damage caused by hydroxyl radical. DPPH radical, hydroxyl radical, hydrogen peroxide and intracellular ROS scavenging assay, and $Fe^{2+}$ chelating assay were used to evaluate the antioxidant properties. phi X 174 RF I plasmid DNA and intracellular DNA migration assay were used to evaluate the protective effect against oxidative DNA damage. Lastly, MTT assay and lipid peroxidation assay were used to evaluate the protective effect against oxidative cell damage. It was found to prevent intracellular DNA and the normal cells from oxidative damage caused by hydroxyl radical via antioxidant activities. These results suggest that Buddleja officinalis may exert the inhibitory effect on ROS-induced carcinogenesis by blocking oxidative DNA damage and cell death.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2016

In the present study, our aim was to determine whether green tea extract (GTE) and its major constituent, epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) have a protective effect on ethanol-induced cytotoxicity and DNA damage in NIH/3T3 and HepG2 cells. The cell viability and DNA single strand breaks were examined by MTT assay and alkaline single cell gel electrophoresis (Comet assay), respectively. Ethanol decreased the cell viability and also increased DNA single strand breaks in a concentration-dependent manner. On the other hand, GTE showed the protective effect of cytotoxicity and DNA damage induced by ethanol in both cell lines. GTE and EGCG, were found to possess the anti-oxidative and anti-genotoxic activities by evaluation with DPPH test, LDL oxidation assay, oxidative DNA damage assay and 8OH-2'dG generation test. These results were also verified by the experimental results demonstrating the lower cytotoxicity and genotoxicity of commercial green tea liqueur compared to pure ethanol in same concentration. Thus it is concluded that the supplementation of GTE or EGCG may mitigate the ethanol-induced cytotoxicity and DNA damage.

• BMB Reports
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• v.52 no.10
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• pp.589-594
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• 2019

Single-molecule techniques have been used successfully to visualize real-time enzymatic activities, revealing transient complex properties and heterogeneity of various biological events. Especially, conventional force spectroscopy including optical tweezers and magnetic tweezers has been widely used to monitor change in DNA length by enzymes with high spatiotemporal resolutions of ~nanometers and ~milliseconds. However, DNA metabolism results from coordination of a number of components during the processes, requiring efficient monitoring of a complex of proteins catalyzing DNA substrates. In this min-review, we will introduce a simple and multiplexed single-molecule assay to detect DNA substrates catalyzed by enzymes with high-throughput data collection. We conclude with a perspective of possible directions that enhance capability of the assay to reveal complex biological events with higher resolution.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.89-91
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• 1998

Cryptotanshinone induced topoisomerase I-mediated DNA cleavage in vitro as strongly as camptothecin, whereas topoisomerase II-mediated DNA cleavage was not induced by this agent. In DNA relaxation assay using calf thymus DNA topoisomerase I and supercoiled pBR322 DNA, cryptotanshinone inhibited topoisomerase I-mediated DNA relaxation in a dose-dependent manner. In unwinding assay, cryptotanshinone ($50{\mu}M$) did not shift the topoisomers of DNA. These results suggest that cryptotanshinone exerted a preferential inhibition of topoisomerase I without intercalating into DNA.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.151-156
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• 2002

Fucoidan is a kind of polysaccharides in brown seaweeds. For the past years have been extensively studied due to their numerous biological activities : anticancer, anticoagulant, antithrombotic, anti-inflammatory and antiviral. In this study, we h ave extracted fucoidan from the Korean brown seaweeds and examined it's anticancer activities for employed SV40 DNA replication assay, RPA-ssDNA binding assay of replication protein A(RPA: known as human single-stranded DNA-binding protein essential for DNA rep-lication) and MCF7 cell growth inhibition assay. In addition to, we found that chemically sulfated fucoidan'santicancer activity is more higher than natural and desulfated fucoidan. It seem that fucoidan's sulfate group affect on DNA replication, cause of decrease RPA's DNA binding activity. These results suggests that sulfated fucoidan from Korean brown seaweeds have anticancer activity.