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Although it is well known that micronuclei may arise from either DNA breakage leading to acentric chromosome fragments or from chromosome/chromatid lagging in anaphase, the ratio between the amount of DNA breakage induced and the frequency of micronuclei expressed in the following interphase is unclear. With the development of the alkaline single cell gel electrophoresis assay, which measures single strand and/or double strand breaks in a cell by cell approach, it is now possible to address this question at the cellular level. We therefore compared the genotoxic potential of pure cobalt powder (Co) and a cobalt-containing alloy, cobalt–tungsten carbide (WC-Co), involved in specific lung disorders, in parallel with the alkaline single cell gel electrophoresis (SCGE) assay (comet assay) and the cytokinesis-blocked micronucleus (MN) test, both carried out in vitro on isolated human leukocytes. The comet …