Analysis of free radical damage within single cells using flow cytometry.

ABSTRACT

The data presented here illustrates the additional information that can be gained on single cell biological effects by using a method of damage estimation based on single cells. The experiments involving primarily free radical damage carried out using H2O2 and the radioprotectors cysteamine and WR 1065, both revealed data that could not have been obtained from a macroscopic study of free radical-DNA chemistry and analysis of reaction products. This serves to emphasise the difficulty in extrapolating both free radical based and other chemical reactions to effects seen in living systems.