Analysis of the trends in in vitro studies of the Latin America-Comet assay (LA-COMET) Group.

On a global scale, the versatility and high sensitivity of the comet assay have promoted its use from different perspectives to determine genotoxic damage. With this in mind and through the formation of a Latin American group denominated "LA-COMET", a review of the manuscripts published by the group is proposed from the perspective of in vitro studies, using the alkaline comet assay. To facilitate the analysis of the 81 manuscripts published between 1996 and 2022, they were classified into four categories based on the type of agents evaluated by the assay: 1) environmental pollutants; 2) pesticides and their mixtures; 3) radiation and drugs; and 4) natural products. The objective of this review was to describe the strengths and versatility of in vitro studies reflected by cellular models, putative DNA damaging agents, and the use of specific enzymes to identify particular DNA lesions. In addition, an in vitro QS (quality score) was established, taking into consideration the data provided in the publications regarding the cellular model, the method of disaggregation and the cell suspension obtention. Other considerations included the clarity of the description of the treatments, the use of negative and positive reference controls, and the use of specific enzymes and/or the functional evaluation of DNA repair. The analysis demonstrated that the publications of the LA-COMET group of in vitro models exhibited a high score with respect to the important parameters established in the OECD agreements.