Deoxyribonucleic acid damage and its detection

Özüm Atasoy1, Oytun Erbaş2

1Department of Radiation Oncology, Dr. Lütfi Kırdar Kartal Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey
2Department of Physiology, Demiroğlu Bilim University, Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey

Keywords: Cell death, deoxyribonucleic acid, mutagenicity, X-rays

Abstract

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is exposed to countless exogenous and endogenous agents that can cause damage. It is estimated that a single cell can undergo up to a million changes in DNA in a single day as a result of these agents. Inability to repair these DNA damages causes mutation, in turn, mutagenesis leads to cancer development. Therefore, knowledge of the factors that cause DNA damage and their mechanisms as well as detection of these damages is important in the health and future of organisms.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declared no conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

Financial Disclosure

The authors received no financial support for the research and/or authorship of this article.