Detection of DNA double-strand break of lymphocytes as a biological marker in radiation injury

Objective To investigate the possibility of applying the DNA double strand break and apoptosis of lymphocytes to biological assay in radiation injury. Methods Comet rates and comet tails were detected using neutral comet assay at 6 h and 24 h following in vitro 0.1-4 Gy γ radiation of whole blood. Results The comet rates increased in a dose-dependent manner.The dose thresholds of comet rates at 6 h and 24 h were 0.6 Gy and 0.1 Gy,respectively.The correlation coefficients were 0.967 and 0.927,respectively.The comet tails at 6 h also increased dose-dependently with a correlation coefficient of 0.847. Conclusion The results of neutral comet assay indicates that there is close correlations between doses and comet rates and tails.