Contribution of apoptosis to observed DNA damage in mussel cells

The comet assay employs the expression of DNA strand breaks by alkaline treatment to measure DNA damage. In contrast to other similar alkaline treatment assays the comet assay incorporates the microscopic examination of damage to individual cell nuclei. Because individual nuclei are examined, features unique to apoptotic cells can be identified. Apoptosis, programmed cell death, is characteristically an orderly sequence of events that ultimately leads to the complete disassembly of a cell. One consequence of apoptosis is the induction of endogenous nucleases which results in the fragmentation of DNA. Apoptosis can be triggered by a variety of stimuli, giving the misleading impression of genotoxic damage if this cytotoxic mechanism of DNA fragmentation is not taken into consideration. In this study mussel cells were exposed to a variety of toxicants and the cytotoxic (apoptotic) contribution to observed DNA damage was determined. A number of stressors induced apoptosis quite rapidly, within hours of exposure. The comet assay detected apoptosis and under certain circumstances apoptosis was found to be the major contributor to observed DNA damage. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.