Comet assay: mutagenicity testing for chemical risk assessment

The World Health Organisation has issued a draft document for public and peer review on a revised strategy for mutagenicity testing. This has been produced as a result of the harmonisation project conducted within the International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS).

This suggests the use of the Comet Assay where appropriate as one of the in vivo tests used in the mutagenicity testing strategy. The main attributes cited for the comet assay are that it can be applied to many tissues, improved specificity with enzymes and that cell division is not required.

As yet there is no OECD Guideline in place for the assay, but guidance has been published by the IWGT, the most recent being Burlinson et al (2007).