Fig. 2

Comet induction in four organs (bone marrow, liver, lung and kidney) 3 h after the treatment of DMAs. Three ddY mice/group were treated with vehicle (olive oil) or 200 mg/kg of one of the DMA isomers by oral gavage. The animals were sacrificed at 3 h after treatment, and the bone marrow, liver, kidney, and lung were collected and processed for the comet assay. A total of 500 randomly selected cells were examined per sample. The comets were classified into five categories [ Type 1: without tail (no damage), Type 2: with a small tail, Type 3: with tail showing evident migration, Type 4: with definite tale showing a consistent amount of fragments, Type 5: Almost all of the DNA is present in the tail (severe genetic damage)] depending on the fraction of DNA migrated out into the tail. (* p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 for type I %)