Open Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2014, 4, 421-428 Published Online June 2014 in SciRes. http://www.scirp.org/journal/ojpm http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ojpm.2014.46049 How to cite this paper: Moffitt, T., Hariton, F., Devlin, M., Garrett, P.J. and Hannon-Fletcher, M.P.A. (2014) Oxidative DNA Damage Is Elevated in Renal Patients Undergoing Haemodialysis. Open Journal of Preventive Medicine, 4, 421-428. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ojpm.2014.46049 Oxidative DNA Damage Is Elevated in Renal Patients Undergoing Haemodialysis Twyla Moffitt 1 , Florence Hariton 1 , Megan Devlin 1 , Peter J. Garrett 2 , Mary P. A. Hannon-Fletcher 1* 1 A School of Health Sciences, University of Ulster, Newtownabbey, UK 2 Renal Unit, Western Health and Social Care Trust, Tyrone County Hospital, Omagh, UK Email: * mp.hannon@ulster.ac.uk Received 13 April 2014; revised 18 May 2014; accepted 3 June 2014 Copyright © 2014 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Abstract Background: End stage renal disease (ESRD) is associated with an increase in oxidative stress, car- diovascular disease and cancer. The main treatment for ESRD is haemodialysis (HD), which itself induces repetitive bouts of oxidative stress through membrane biocompatibility and endotoxin challenge. The resulting higher levels of reactive oxygen species in turn produce increased levels of oxidative DNA damage leading to genomic instability which may influence the higher risk of cancer reported in HD patients. Our aims were to measure levels of oxidative DNA damage in HD patients and in age and gender matched control volunteers. Methods: Thirty eight patients recei- ving HD in the Western Health and Social Services Trust (WHSCT) and 8 healthy volunteers were recruited. Volunteers gave informed consent and non-fasting morning blood samples were taken and assessed for DNA disruption using the comet assay modified to identify oxidative specific da- mage. Results: The HD patients had significantly elevated levels of alkaline DNA damage (19.46% ± 1.37% vs 3.86% ± 1.36% tail DNA, p < 0.05) and oxidative DNA damage formamidepyrimidine DNA glycosilase (5.81% ± 1.08% vs 1.23% ± 0.43% tail DNA, p < 0.01) and endonuclease III (6.04% ± 1.00% vs 1.98% ± 0.70% tail DNA, p < 0.01) compared to controls, respectively. A positive cor- relation was observed between the duration on dialysis (months) and levels of Endo III specific damage (p = 0.041). Conclusion: The significant increase in oxidative DNA damage and the positive correlation with duration of HD treatment and Endo III damage may contribute to the increased cancer risk observed in this patient group. Studies are required to investigate the best way to re- duce this damage. Keywords Haemodialysis, Modified Comet Assay, Oxidative DNA Damage * Corresponding author.