Research Perspective|Volume 3, Issue 2|pp 168—174

Recent developments in the use of γ -H2AX as a quantitative DNA double-strand break biomarker

Christophe E. Redon¹, Asako J. Nakamura, Olga A. Martin, Palak R. Parekh, Urbain S. Weyemi, William M. Bonner

¹Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA

Received: February 3, 2011Accepted: February 10, 2011Published: February 11, 2011

Copyright: © 2011 Redon et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

The past year has seen considerable developments in the use of the DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) to evaluate genome alterations in cells undergoing a variety of genotoxic stresses in vitro and in vivo. When the γ -H2AX foci which mark the DSBs are stained, individual breaks are detectible, making the assay suitable for situations requiring great sensitivity. While the methods for the detection of γ -H2AX foci are still evolving, particularly for in vivo detection, the basic assay has proven to be useful in several diverse areas of research. We will highlight recent developments of the assay in four areas: radiation biodosimetry, the evaluation or validation of new cancer drugs in clinical studies, chronic inflammation, and environmental genotoxicity.