The carcinogenic mechanism of coal tar pitch (CTP) as a recognized carcinogen has been studying. It is widely believed that the carcinogenicity of CTP is based on the genotoxicity of CTP. In the process of carcinogenesis caused by extrinsic chemical substance, the DNA damage mainly occurred in the initiation phase. UP to now, the most sensitive detecting endpoint for DNA damage is to detect DNA single strand breaks. The single cell gel electrophoresis has been rapidly becoming a widely used analytical procedure during the last few years, which can detect DNA strand breaks. The method is a fast, relatively inexpensive, easy to perform, non-radioactive, and very sensitive method. This method suits to different tests in vitro or in vivo. Virtually any eukaryotic cell, which could be made into single cell suspensions, can be processed for analysis of DNA damage using the single cell gel electrophoresis. The aim of the study is to investigate the role of DNA damage induced by CTP fume in rat AM, to examine the cha

来源：癌变·畸变·突变 2001 年 13卷 4期