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Measuring Apoptosis in Individual Cells with
the Comet Assay
By Benjamin E. Nelms, Department of Medical Physics, University of
Wisconsin-Madison, and Rich Moravec and Terry Riss, Promega Corporation
Many eukaryotic cells have the intrinsic ability to self-destruct when they become
severely damaged. This mechanism of programmed cell death, widely known as apoptosis, is
valuable for maintaining tissue homeostasis and protecting an organism from potentially
harmful abnormal cells. The detection of apoptosis at the single cell level requires an
assay that allows analyses of individual cells for the biological changes induced by
apoptosis. One such change is the severe fragmentation of cellular DNA, a characteristic
that can be readily measured by single cell gel electrophoresis, known as the
"comet" assay.
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