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Review
. 2020 Mar 19;17(6):2046.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph17062046.

Ocular Cell Lines and Genotoxicity Assessment

Eliana B Souto  1   2 , Joana R Campos  1 , Raquel Da Ana  1 , Carlos Martins-Gomes  3   4 , Amélia M Silva  3   4 , Selma B Souto  5 , Massimo Lucarini  6 , Alessandra Durazzo  6 , Antonello Santini  7
Affiliations
Review

Ocular Cell Lines and Genotoxicity Assessment

Eliana B Souto et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Genotoxicity screening tests aim to evaluate if and to what extent a compound in contact with the human body (e.g., a drug molecule, a compound from the environment) interacts with DNA. The comet assay is a sensitive method used to predict the risk of DNA damage in individual cells, as it quantifies the tape breaks, being the alkaline version (pH > 13) the most commonly used in the laboratory. Epithelial cells serve as biomatrices in genotoxicity assessments. As ca. 80% of solid cancers are of epithelial origin, the quantification of the DNA damage upon exposure of epithelial cells to a drug or drug formulation becomes relevant. Comet assays run in epithelial cells also have clinical applications in human biomonitoring, which assesses whether and to what extent is the human body exposed to environmental genotoxic compounds and how such exposure changes over time. Ocular mucosa is particularly exposed to environmental assaults. This review summarizes the published data on the genotoxicity assessment in estimating DNA damage in epithelial cells with a special focus on ocular cell lines. General comet assay procedures for ex vivo and in vivo epithelium samples are also described.

Keywords: DNA damage; comet assay; epithelial cells; ocular cells lines.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Anatomical and physiological features of the eye structure.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Sources of DNA damage and detection methods in comet assays.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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