Gender-related differences in basal DNA damage in lymphocytes of a healthy Indian population using the alkaline Comet assay

The Comet assay, a sensitive, rapid and non-invasive technique, measures DNA damage in individual cells and has found wide acceptance in epidemiological and biomonitoring studies to determine the DNA damage resulting from lifestyle, occupational and environmental exposure. The present study was undertaken to measure the basal level of DNA damage in a normal, healthy Indian male and female population. Out of the 230 volunteers included in this study, 124 were male and 106 were female. All the individuals belonged to a comparable socio-economic background and aged between 20 and 30 years. They were also matched for their smoking and dietary habits. The period of sample collection was also matched. The results revealed a statistically significant higher level of DNA damage in males when compared to females as evident by an increase in the Olive tail moment [3.76 +/- 1.21 (arbitrary units) for males as compared to 3.37 +/- 1.47 for females (P < 0.05)], tail DNA (%) [10.2 +/- 2.96 for males as compared to 9.40 +/- 2.83 for females (P < 0.05)] and tail length (mum) [59.65 +/- 9.23 for males and 49.57 +/- 14.68 for females (P < 0.001)]. To our knowledge, this report has, for the first time demonstrated significant differences in the basal level of DNA damage between males and females in a normal healthy Indian population. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.