Spectrum of methods

To assess the influence of metals and metal compounds, nanomaterials and bioactive food compounds on genomic stability in cell culture a broad range of different methods was established in our laboratory. They include:

• the application of regular, co- and 3D-cell culture systems
  • determination of viability and cytotoxicity,
  • examination of apoptosis and cell cycle control (e.g. with flow cytometry),
  • measuring concentrations of selected metals with atom absorption spectrometry (AAS) and colorimetric methods,
  • quantitative and qualitative protein determination with Western Blot, immunofluorescence and ELISA,
• the quantification of DNA damage and repair induction as well as mutagenicity
  • oxidative DNA damage, benzo[a]pyrene-induced DNA damage, UVC-induced DNA damage, DNA single and double strand breaks, e.g. by alkaline unwinding, micronuclei induction, HPLC with fluorescence detection,
  • examination of different DNA repair pathways (e.g. wiith reporter test systems, repair-deficient cell lines, accumulation of DNA repair proteins),
  • examination of PARP activity,
  • determination of mutagenicity by PIG-A assay,
• the observation of selected cellular processes with live cell imaging (in a time-dependent manner),
• the analysis of gene expression profiles with real-time RT-PCR and multiplex-PCR
  • influence on genomic stability (oxidative stress, general stress response, DNA damage response, cell cycle control, metal homeostasis, inflammatory and fibrotic responses),
• the examination of particular and fibrous nanomaterials
  • characterization of nanomaterials,
  • air-liquid interface exposure,
  • comparison of soluble compounds with nano- and microparticles as well as fibrous materials with regard to cytotoxicity, DNA damage, gene expression profiling and other endpoints.