CometAssay® Single Cell Gel Electrophoresis: R&D Systems

Single Cell Gel Electrophoresis

Comet assay, or single cell gel electrophoresis assay, is a powerful technique for quantitating DNA damage and repair in eukaryotic cells and some prokaryotic cells. This technique uses cells that are embedded into agarose, placed on a slide, which is then immersed in lysis solution. After the cells are lysed, DNA is denatured and run through electrophoresis. The resulting image obtained resembles a comet that includes a distinct head and tail. The head of the comet is composed of intact DNA and the tail consists of the DNA damage. Comet assay can be run under neutral conditions to detect double-stranded breaks or alkaline conditions to detect smaller amounts of damage in DNA that include single- and double-stranded breaks.

Due to the ease of use and ability to measure DNA damage and repair in single cells, comet assay has rapidly gained importance in the fields of genetic toxicology as well as human and environmental biomonitoring. R&D Systems offers a complete line of CometAssay products. From reagents to analysis software, we have everything you need to create standardized and reproducible results.

Products for comet assay:

CometAssay^®: designed to run a standard comet assay under neutral or alkaline conditions.
CometAssay^® Electrophoresis System: designed to consistently optimize alkaline and neutral comet assays for highly reproducible results, and to standardize electrophoresis methods between individual users and laboratories.
CometAssay^® Analysis Software: quickly analyze results created with CometAssay^® products.

Additional DNA Damage and Repair Resources

CometAssay®

R&D Systems offers a complete system to run a traditional comet assay. Products include CometAssay Kits, CometSlides, CometAssay Control Cells, and a specialized CometAssay Electrophoresis System.

CometAssay^® Kit
Kits include CometAssay LMAgarose, CometAssay Lysis Solution, EDTA, and CometSlide in a 2-well format.

CometAssay^® Electrophoresis System II
Designed to optimize and standardize alkaline and neutral comet assays. Accommodates 2-well and 3-well slides and maintains correct position during electrophoresis.

CometAssay^® Analysis Software
Rapidly evaluate a large number of cells by automatically locating and scoring images in seconds with the ability to analyze both alkaline and neutral comet conditions

CometSlides^™
Specially treated slides to promote agarose adherence and easy application of cells directly to each well. 2-well slides are available to allow for flexibility and scalability based on slide format.

FLARE^™ Slides
A 3-well slide that promotes adherence of LMAgarose and creates rapid and reliable analysis of large numbers of samples in a standard format.

CometAssay^® Starter Kits
Starter kits come in 2-well format and contain the CometAssay Kit, CometAssay Control Cells, as well as the CometAssay Electrophoresis System II.

CometAssay^® Control Cells
Standardize comet assay runs with cryopreserved cells containing different levels of DNA damage. CometAssay Control Cells are offered for both neutral and alkaline comet assay.

CometAssay^® Silver Staining Reagents and Kit
Visualize using a standard light microscopy and stain slides permanently for archiving.

CometAssay Single Cell Gel Electrophoresis

Visualization of DNA Damage using the CometAssay Kit and SYBR Gold. Human Nalm6 cells were treated with 5 µM etoposide and visualized using the CometAssay Kit (Catalog # 4250-050-K) under alkali conditions. Slides were stained as recommended in the kit instructions and analyzed by microscopy. Undamaged DNA does not migrate far from the origin, while damaged DNA appears as a fluorescent comet tail.

Visualization of DNA Damage using the CometAssay Silver Staining

Visualization of DNA Damage using the CometAssay Silver Staining. Murin WEHI 7.1 lymphoma cells were treated with potassium permanganate and processed using the CometAssay Silver Kit (Catalog # 4251-050-K) under alkali conditions. Slides were stained as recommended in the kit instructions and analyzed by microscopy. DNA damage is indicated by a comet tail shape and the overall migration pattern of the DNA.

CometAssay® Analysis Software

Add the CometAssay^® Analysis Software to your CometAssay work flow and rapidly evaluate a large number of cells by automatically locating and scoring images in seconds. The software has the capability to analyze both alkaline and neutral comet conditions in low or high throughput formats. The CometAssay Analysis Software has been specially engineered to complement and operate as the computational component of R&D Systems CometAssay and CometChip Systems.

View our CometAssay Analysis Software Training Video.