studies in molecular sciences.
What happens when cells go rogue?
The main ways for cancer cell to repair damage to cisplatin adducts it to go through Nucleotide Excision Repair (NER). One way for researchers to study how cancer cells repair their DNA with NER is by way of the Comet-Assay. This cell line I used to treat with UV-C light radiation, and measure the DNA-repair rate with the comet technique. Cells were treated UV-light at 10 & 20J and their DNA per cent tail-DNA damage was plotted as a function of time for how long cells were left in DNA repair.
When I first saw these cancer
cells down the microscope, I was intrigued that they
did not look like any sort of spherical cell (=
textbook cell).
The cell line Hs578T is noted by the stellate growth pattern. Hs578T is a breast cancer cell line, from the collective of Triple Negative Breast Cancer cells. The figure below is the Hs57T cell line, micrograph obtained 28th March, 2019.
The tails of the comets are formed under the
electrochemical conditions of the electrophoresis
machine. Electrophoresis is the technique used to
separate DNA because it holds a net negative charge.
You can also separate RNA and proteins on the basis of
differences in charge.
Physics of
electrophoresis. Click here!
How can I have
seen the cancer cells? Click here for an explanation
Figure.
Hs578T Comet images from the 20J 1hr repair time