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The LAI Comet Analysis system provides a number of powerful analytic measures to characterize and quantify the degree of DNA damage revealed by the comet assay. These measures include:
|
Measure |
Description |
|
Tail Length |
Provides a measure of the maximum distance of cellular DNA migration. |
|
Tail Area |
The total projected area of the comet tail, coupling aspects of both tail length and average width in a single measure. |
|
Integrated Cell Intensity |
The total fluorescent intensity in the cell, providing an index of total cellular DNA content, useful for cell cycle assessments. |
|
Percent DNA in the Tail |
The integrated tail intensity x 100 divided by the total integrated cell intensity for a normalized measure of the percent of total cell DNA found in the tail. |
|
Tail Moment |
The product of distance and normalized intensity integrated over the tail length for a damage measure combining the amount of DNA in the tail with the distance of migration (severity of damage). |
|
Tail Moment Arm |
The tail moment divided by the normalized integrated tail intensity to measure the average distance of DNA migration within the tail. |
|
Tail Moment of Inertia |
The distance squared x normalized intensity integrated over the length of the tail. Similar to tail moment, but providing further emphases on the migration distance, for more sensitivity in low damage conditions. |
|
Fragmentation |
Measures the relative texture or roughness of the fluorescent cell intensity providing an index of the total fragmentation of cellular DNA in both the head and tail combined. |