Journal of Clinical Laboratory Analysis 26: 161166 (2012)Oxidative Status and DNA Damage in ChidrenWith Marasmic MalnutritionMaruf Celik,1Kabil Sermatov,2Mahmut Abuhandan,2 Dost Zeyrek,2Abdurrahim Kocyigit,3and Akin Iscan21Department of Pediatrics, Childrens Hospital, Sanliurfa, Turkey2Department of Pediatrics, Harran University Faculty of Medicine, Sanliurfa, Turkey3Department of Biochemistry, Harran University Faculty of Medicine, Sanliurfa, TurkeyMalnutrition as a lack of several substancescontaining antioxidants such as vitaminsand micronutrients, while showing a predis-position for lipid peroxidation and DNA dam-age, is also characterized by a slowing downof the metabolic processes, which may thenhave protective properties against DNAdamage due to a reduction in endogenousfreeradical production. ThisstudyaimedtoexaminetheoxidativestatusandDNAdamageincasesofmarasmus.Thestudycomprised28infants aged624monthswithmarasmusonlyand28age-matchedhealthyinfants. DNAdamagewasexam-inedbythealkali singlecell electrophore-sis method (Comet assay) on mononuclearleukocytes.Thetotal oxidantstatus(TOS)and total antioxidant status (TAS) were mea-sured by colormetric auto-analyzer and theoxidative stress index (OSI) was calculated.TheTOS, TAS, andOSI levelsof thepa-tient groupwerefoundtobesignicantlylowercomparedtothecontrol group(P