微核（MN）分析是当前检测人类遗传物质损伤的最常用方法之一，可在外周血淋巴细胞和不同器官（口腔、鼻子、膀胱和子宫颈）的剥落细胞中进行。微核是含有外核DNA的细胞体，可以在显微镜下识别。它们反映了结构和数值染色体畸变，是暴露于职业、环境和生活方式致突变因素导致的结果。它们也能够由于摄入某些微量元素和维生素不足引起。高微核率与人体癌症和其他非癌症疾病的风险增加有关。此外，越来越多的证据表明，微核的测量可能是诊断和预测不同形式的癌症和其他疾病（炎症、感染、代谢障碍）以及评估医疗治疗效果的有用工具。最近对当前知识状况的审查表明，许多临床研究存在方法学缺陷。这可能导致有争议的结果，并限制了它们在定义有害化学品的暴露浓度、判断清除策略、诊断疾病以及鉴定保护或有害的膳食成分方面的有用性。本文描述了人类微核研究的重要质量标准，并提供了可接受的研究设计建议。需要更多关注的重要参数包括足够大的样本组、足够长的干预研究时间、排除可能影响结果的混淆因素（性别、年龄、体重指数、营养等）、按照已建立的评分标准评估适当的每个样本细胞数，以及使用适当的染料和充分的统计分析。版权所有©2021年。由Elsevier B.V.出版。

Micronucleus (MN) analyses in peripheral blood lymphocytes and exfoliated cells from different organs (mouth, nose, bladder and cervix) are at present the most widely used approaches to detect damage of genetic material in humans. MN are extranuclear DNA-containing bodies, which can be identified microscopically. They reflect structural and numerical chromosomal aberrations and are formed as a consequence of exposure to occupational, environmental and lifestyle genotoxins. They are also induced as a consequence of inadequate intake of certain trace elements and vitamins. High MN rates are associated with increased risk of cancer and a range of non-cancer diseases in humans. Furthermore, evidence is accumulating that measurements of MN could be a useful tool for the diagnosis and prognosis of different forms of cancer and other diseases (inflammation, infections, metabolic disorders) and for the assessment of the therapeutic success of medical treatments. Recent reviews of the current state of knowledge suggest that many clinical studies have methodological shortcomings. This could lead to controversial findings and limits their usefulness in defining the impact of exposure concentrations of hazardous chemicals, for the judgment of remediation strategies, for the diagnosis of diseases and for the identification of protective or harmful dietary constituents. This article describes important quality criteria for human MN studies and contains recommendations for acceptable study designs. Important parameters that need more attention include sufficiently large group sizes, adequate duration of intervention studies, the exclusion of confounding factors which may affect the results (sex, age, body mass index, nutrition, etc.), the evaluation of appropriate cell numbers per sample according to established scoring criteria as well as the use of proper stains and adequate statistical analyses.Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier B.V.