Author(s): Vidya G, Suma H Y, Vishnu Bhat B, Parkash Chand, Ramachandra Rao K, Harichandrakumar K T
The present case-control study was undertaken to assess the level of DNA damage in children with congenital heart disease and compare the same with that of age and sex matched controls using submarine gel electrophoresis (Comet Assay).The clinical diagnosis of CHD was confirmed with echocardiography. Subsequently the cases and the controls were subjected for alkaline version of comet assay – Single cell gel electrophoresis using lymphocytes isolated from the peripheral blood. Scoring of comets and recording of the data of comet metrics was done after capturing the images of various sizes of comets under bright field microscopy using the Olypmus BX 51trinocular research microscope (Japan) and an automated Comet Scoring Software TriTek V 1.5. Comet parameters were compared between the cases and controls using Unpaired ‘t’ test using the statistical software SPSS version 19. The mean comet tail length in cases and control was 19.90μm and 0.89 μm respectively which was statistically significant (p<0.001). Other comet parameters like total comet length and %DNA in head also showed a statistically significant difference (p < 0.05) between cases and controls. The current investigation unraveled increased levels of DNA damage in children with congenital heart defect as evidenced by statistically significant levels of the comet metrics in cases when compared to the controls.