Oxidative damage to DNA and single strand break repair capacity: Relationship to other measures of oxidative stress in a population cohort

It is well accepted that oxidative DNA repair capacity, oxidative damage to DNA and oxidative stress play central roles in aging and disease development. However, the correlation between oxidative damage to DNA, markers of oxidant stress and DNA repair capacity is unclear. In addition, there is no universally accepted panel of markers to assess oxidative stress in humans. Our interest is oxidative damage to DNA and its correlation with DNA repair capacity and other markers of oxidative stress. We present preliminary data from a small comet study that attempts to correlate single strand break (SSB) level with single strand break repair capacity (SSB-RC) and markers of oxidant stress and inflammation. In this limited study of four very small age-matched 24-individual groups of male and female whites and African-Americans aged 30–64 years, we found that females have higher single strand break (SSB) levels than males (p = 0.013). There was a significant negative correlation between SSB-RC and SSB level (p = 0.041). There was a positive correlation between SSBs in African American males with both heme degradation products (p = 0.008) and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) (p = 0.022). We found a significant interaction between hs-CRP and sex in their effect on residual DNA damage (p = 0.002). Red blood cell reduced glutathione concentration was positively correlated with the levels of oxidized bases detected by endonuclease III (p = 0.047), heme degradation products (p = 0.015) and hs-CRP (p = 0.020). However, plasma carbonyl levels showed no significant correlation with other markers. The data from the literature and from our very limited study suggest a complex relationship between measures of oxidative stress and frequently used clinical parameters believed to reflect inflammation or oxidative stress.