A new method of the analysis of comet assay images

The single cell gel electrophoresis, called "comet assay" is a very sensitive method of detecting the DNA strand breaks at the level of single cell. Alkaline version of the comet assay detects predominantly single-strand breaks and alkali-labile damage and is widely used for the measurement of the DNA damage induced by ionising radiation at the clinically used doses. This method allows the measurement of the rate of initial DNA breaks and rejoining and indicates the repair capacity of cells. Our interest is the application of the comet assay as a predictive method of evaluating the individual radiosensitivity of cancer patients. In this paper we describe the commonly used parameters describing the comet and introduce a quite new method of the extraction of the comet tail. To our knowledge it is the first technique capable of determining the comet tail shape in form of a binary image, which allows not only the calculations of all relevant comet parameters, but also enables the description of the comet shape and its textural structure. Copyright (C) 2000 IFAC.