DNA damage in brain cells of mice treated with an oxidized form of apomorphine.

Abstract We investigated whether systemic injection of apomorphine and its oxidation derivative 8-oxo-apomorphine-semiquinone (8-OASQ) could induce DNA damage in mice brain, using the single-cell gel assay. 8-OASQ induced DNA damage in the brains at 1 and 3 h, but not at 24 h after treatment whereas apomorphine induced a slight increase in brain DNA damage frequency at 3 h after treatment, suggesting that both drugs display genotoxic activity in brain tissue.