Modulatory effects of garlic extract against the cyclophosphamide induced genotoxicity in human lymphocytes in vitro.

ABSTRACT

Cyclophosphamide (CP) is a commonly used chemotherapeutic and immunosuppressive agent which is used in the treatment of wide range of cancers and autoimmune diseases. Besides that it is a well known carcinogen. In this study by using chromosomal aberrations (CA) and sister chromatid exchanges (SCE) assays method, the modulatory effects exerted by the extract of garlic against the CP induced genotoxicity in the human lymphocyte cultures in vitro were tested. Three different doses of garlic extract were tested for their modulatory capacity on the mutagenecity exerted by 100 µg ml-1 of CP. The results indicate a significant decrease in the frequency of CA and SCE suggesting that the garlic extract modulates the CP induced genotoxicity in a dose dependent manner. These findings provide the future directions for the research on design and development of possible modulatory drugs containing garlic extract.