Author(s): Brooklyin S, Rashmoni Jana, Adhisivam , Parkash Chand, Ravikumar Chittoria
Orofacial clefts are the commonest congenital structural anomalies of the lip and/or palate. Beyond cosmetic abnormality children often suffer from feeding difficulties, ear infections, hearing loss, speech and language delay, dental problems and multiple craniofacial/dental surgeries. Present study was conducted to assess DNA damage among children with orofacial clefts. One ml of peripheral blood was collected from children of isolated cleft lip, isolated cleft palate and cleft lip with cleft palate (n=80) and controls, subjected to single cell gel electrophoresis (Comet assay) for DNA damage. Comet parameters were measured. The mean percentage of undamaged DNA in the comet head was 83.9 ± 6.8 % in orofacial clefts and 95.4 ± 1.8 % among controls, (p < 0.01). The mean tail length in cases was 22.6 ± 15.5 μm and in controls 6.7 ± 2.7 μm (p < 0.01). There is significantly increased DNA damage in orofacial cleft cases than controls. The various stress factors due to comorbidities and complications in orofacial clefts could be the reasons for DNA damage in the present study.