Metallic compounds and a number of other chemicals can cause damage to the DNA in our body. Our DNA carries the information that guides all the activities being performed in our cells, organs, and bodies. This information is vital and should not be damaged or altered. In a normal cell, if there is any damage to DNA, it is fixed by DNA repair and maintenance systems. However, if a cell or an organ is continuously exposed to a chemical or metallic compound that has ability to damage DNA, then the damage to the DNA becomes excessive. Excessive or continuous damage to DNA is risky because the following things could happen. Some of the damage may be left unrepaired, causing changes in the information carried by the DNA or if this damage occurs in the regions of DNA where repair genes are located, the repair system could become either defective or overactive. Both of these problems can lead to a further increase in the number of changes in the DNA.

License information: CC BY 4.0
MPAA: G
Go to source: https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2017.00006