Nordic BioSite Instruments Range

Overview

Nordic BioSite is distributor to Scandinavia and Baltic states for Trevigen’s complete range of assay instruments, which include CometAssay® kits, CometSlides®, CometAssay® electrophoresis systems and CometAssay® control cells for alkaline and neutral comet assays.

These instruments provide more consistent and standardized methods of conducting superior Single Cell Gel Electrophoresis (SCGE) tests, also known as comet assays.

Applications:

The SCGE comet assay is a sensitive but straightforward technique for detecting DNA damage or cell death at individual eukaryotic cell level. As the only direct method for the detection of such DNA damage, it is widely used in cancer research, in genotoxicity studies on environmental mutagens, and for screening compounds for cancer therapeutics.

Hitherto, a principal problem with comet assay results has been variability, depending on temperature, distance between electrodes, and buffer height.

With funding from Phase II SBIR grants from the US National Cancer Institute (see References), Trevigen has solved these problems by developing a specialized electrophoresis system, supplied as a series of complete assay kits that include CometSlides®, reagents, control cells and an electrophoresis unit. The unit retains test cells in a uniquely configured electrophoretic field permitting the consistent DNA migration patterns that are critical for standardization of the assay.

Features and Benefits

Trevigen’s CometAssay® Electrophoresis System (ES) units provide investigators with greater consistency in optimizing alkaline and neutral comet assays for more reproducible results, allowing electrophoresis methods to be standardized between individual users and laboratories.

The core ES unit features:

• An acrylic overlay on top of the elevated slide tray maintains optimal buffer height for DNA migration
• Water chamber cools ceramic slide platform and buffer chamber to maintain constant buffer temperature
• Smoke grey colored unit minimizes exposure to UV light
• Specially designed slide trays accommodate 2, 20 and 96 well slides, maintaining proper slide orientation during electrophoresis

CometAssay Electrophoresis System 2

The CometAssay® ES II unit features:

• Cooling pack chamber and one-piece molded plastic body to maintains constant buffer temperature
• Maintenance of optimal buffer level for consistent results with overlay
• Optimized for use with CometAssay Kits and CometAssay Control Cell

Each lot of the proprietary control cells, reagents and CometSlides® developed by Trevigen are specifically tested and qualified for use in the CometAssay® System.

All units are provided with 4250-050-ESK-PS2 power supply for use across Scandinavia and the EU, apart from UK. Trevigen also provide British and other national regional standard power supplies, including North America, Australia and Switzerland.

Range
The Nordic BioSite range of CometAssay kits and components comprises seven offerings:

4252-040-ESK-PS220 Well ES Unit w/ Starter Kit and Power Supply

• 4250-050-ES CometAssay® Electrophoresis System
• 4252-050-K CometAssay® Kit (20 well)

4250-050-ESK-PS2 power supply (EU)

• 4256-010-CC CometAssay® Control Cells (alkaline)
• 4257-010-CC CometAssay® Control Cells (neutral)

Application: DNA Damage and Repair
The CometAssay® ES Unit and CometAssay® Control cells enable investigators to consistently optimize alkaline comet assays for highly reproducible results, and to standardize alkaline electrophoresis methods between individual users and laboratories.
This unit features 2x 20 well plates.4253-096-ESK-PS296 Well ES Unit w/ Starter Kit and Power Supply

• 4250-050-ES CometAssay® Electrophoresis System
• 4253-096-K CometAssay® Kit (96 well)

4250-050-ESK-PS2 power supply (EU)

• 4256-010-CC CometAssay® Control Cells (alkaline)
• 4257-010-CC CometAssay® Control Cells (neutral)

Application: DNA Damage and Repair (See above)4253-096-ESKCometAssay 96 Well ES Unit w/ Starter Kit

• 4250-050-ES CometAssay® Electrophoresis System
• 4253-096-K CometAssay® Kit (96 well)
• 4256-010-CC CometAssay® Control Cells (alkaline)
• 4257-010-CC CometAssay® Control Cells (neutral)
• 4250-050-ESK I Unit only

Application: DNA Damage and Repair (See above);

Applications: Various

4250-050-ESKCometAssay Electrophoresis System

• 4250-050-ES II Unit only

Application: Cell Death4250-050-ESCometAssay ES II

• 4250-050-ES II Unit only

Application: Cell Death4252-040-02CometSlide Rack System

• Each CometSlide Rack System is composed of a durable plastic rack that holds 20 slides, and a translucent plastic reservoir with lid

Applications: Various
The CometSlide™ Rack System accommodates standard CometSlides™ and FLARE™ slides as CometSlide™ HT wells for use in CometAssay® and FLARE™ assays

References:

The CometAssay system was developed in projects supported by the US National Cancer Institute and funded under Grant Number R44CA096390.

Relevant research, along with use and application of CometAssay Electrophoresis System and CometAssay Electrophoresis System Kit, version 2, is variously described in the following papers and articles:

1. Angelis, K.J., M. Dusinska and A.R. Collins. (1999). Single cell gel electrophoresis: Detection of DNA damage at different levels of sensitivity. Electrophoresis 20: pp. 2133-2138.
2. Awad, W.A., Ghareeb, K., Dadak, A., Gille, L., Staniek, K., Hess, M. and Böhm, J., (2012). Genotoxic effects of deoxynivalenol in broiler chickens fed low-protein feeds. Poultry Science, Mar 2012; 91: pp. 550-555.
3. Chen, W., Albert, A., Leiter, C., Gong, F., Jackson, S.P., and Miller, K.M., (2013). Systematic Identification of Functional Residues in Mammalian Histone H2AX. Molecular Cell Biology, Jan 2013; 33: pp. 111-126.
4. Collins, A.R., A.G. Ma, and S.J. Duthie, 1995. The kinetics of repair of oxidative DNA damage (strand breaks and oxidized pyrimidine dimers) in human cells. Mutation Research 336: pp. 69-77.
5. Fairbairn, D.W., P.L. Olive, K.L. O’Neill. 1995. The comet assay: a comprehensive review. Mutation Research 339: pp. 37-59.
6. Henderson, L., Wolfreys, A., Fedyk, J., Bourner, C. and Windeback, S., (1998). The ability for the comet assay to discriminate between genotoxins and cytotoxins. Mutagenesis 13: pp. 89-94.
7. Lemay, M. and Wood, K.A., (1999). Detection of DNA damage and identification of UV-induced photoproducts using the CometAssay™ kit. BioTechniques 27(4): pp. 846-851.
8. Malyapa, R.S., Bi, c., Ahern, E.W., and Roti Roti, J.L., (1998) Detection of DNA damage by the alkali comet assay after exposure to low dose gamma radiation. Radiation Research 149: pp. 396-400.
9. Martínez, T.F., Phillips, J.W., Karanja, K.K., Polaczek P, Wang, C., Li, B.C, Campbell, J.L. and Dervan, P.B., (2014). Replication stress by Py-Im polyamides induces a non-canonical ATR-dependent checkpoint response. Nucleic Acids Research, Oct 2014; 42: pp. 11546 – 11559; http://nar.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/42/18/11546
10. Morris, E.J., Dreixler, J.C., Cheng K-Y, Wilson P-M, Gin, R.M., and Geller, H.M., (1999). Optimization of single-cell gel electrophoresis (SCGE) for quantitative analysis of neuronal DNA damage. BioTechniques, 26: pp. 282-289.
11. Östling, O. and Johanson, K.J., (1984). Microelectrophoretic study of radiation-induced DNA damage in individual cells. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 123: pp. 291-298.
12. Polkinghorn, W.R., Parker, J.S., Lee, M.X., Kass, E.M., Spratt, D.E., Iaquinta, P.J., Arora, V.K., Yen, W.F., Cai, L., Zheng, D., Carver, B.S., Chen, K-Y., Watson, P.A., Shah, N.P., Fujisawa, S., Goglia, A.G., Gopalan, A., Hieronymus, H., Wongvipat, J., (2013). Androgen Receptor Signaling Regulates DNA Repair in Prostate Cancers. Cancer Discovery, Nov 2013; 3: pp. 1245-1253.
13. Scanlon, S.E. and Glazer, P.M., (2014). Hypoxic Stress Facilitates Acute Activation and Chronic Downregulation of Fanconi Anemia Proteins. Molecular Cancer Research, Jul 2014; 12: pp. 1016 – 1028; http://mcr.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/12/7/1016
14. Singh, N.P., McCoy, M.T., Tice, R.R., and Schneider, E.E., (1988). A simple technique for quantitation of low levels of DNA damage in individual cells. Experimental Cell Research 175:184-191.
15. Topham, C.H., Billinton, N., and Walmsley, N.M., (2012) Nongenotoxic Apoptosis Inducers Do Not Produce Misleading Positive Results in the TK6 Cell-Based GADD45a-GFP Genotoxicity Assay. Toxicology Science, Jul 2012; 128: pp. 79-91.
16. Visvardis, E.E., Tassiou, A.M., and Piperakis, S.M., (1997). Study of DNA damage induction and repair capacity of fresh cryopreserved lymphocytes exposed to H2O2 and gamma-irradiation with the alkaline comet assay. Mutation Research 383: pp. 71-80.
17. Yang, F, Nickols, N.G., Li, B.C., Marinov, G.K., Said, J.W., and Dervan, P.B. (2013) Antitumor activity of a pyrrole-imidazole polyamide. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Jan 2013; 110: pp. 1863-1868.

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