Evaluation of antioxidant, enzyme inhibition, and cytotoxic activity of three anthraquinones (alizarin, purpurin, and quinizarin).

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this work was to investigate the cytotoxic, antioxidative, and enzyme inhibition effects of alizarin, quinizarin, and purpurin, which are anthraquinones (AQ). METHODS: Cytotoxic effects were evaluated with cell inhibition rate by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol- 2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay. Different chemical assays, including free radical scavenging activity (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl and 2,2-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazloine-6-sulfonic acid)), phosphomolybdenum and reducing power (ferric reducing antioxidant power and cupric ion reducing activity), were used to evaluate the antioxidant properties. Moreover, enzyme inhibitory activities were analyzed against acetylcholinesterase, butrylcholinesterase, tyrosinase, α-amylase, and α-glucosidase. RESULTS: These components have antioxidant and enzyme inhibition activity. Especially, purpurin showed the strongest antioxidant and good enzyme inhibitory effects. According to our cytotoxicity results, alizarin, purpurin, and quinizarin induced dose- and time-dependent cell proliferation. Furthermore, when we applied AQs with mitomycin C (MC) on L929 cell line, we demonstrated that cell proliferation in MC-AQ groups compared with MC group was increased. The most effective component was alizarin at 100 µM concentration. These AQs showed positive effects on L929 cell lines with high half-maximal inhibitory concentration values. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate that AQs may be used as antioxidative compounds in food and medicinal applications.

Antagonistic effects of Satureja hortensis essential oil against AFB1 on human lymphocytes in vitro.

Satureja hortensis L. (Lamiaceae) has been used as a folk remedy to treat various such as cramps, muscle pains, nausea, indigestion, diarrhea, and infectious diseases. In this study, the antagonistic effects of essential oil of S. hortensis (SHE) were studied against aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) in human lymphocytes in vitro. The analysis of the essential oil was performed by using Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Anti-genotoxic effects of the SHEs was evaluated using sister chromatid exchange (SCE), micronuclei (MN) tests against AFB1. Also level of malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activities used to determine the anti-oxidative effects of the SHEs. This result showed AFB1 (5 microM) increased the frequencies of SCE, MN and the level of MDA. AFB1 at the same concentration decreased the activities of SOD and GPx. However, different concentrations of SHE with AFB1 decreased the frequency of SCE and MN and level of MDA and also increased the activities of SOD and GPx significantly. Especially, the 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 microL dose of SHE are more effective than other doses. The results of this experiment have clearly shown that SHE has strong antioxidative and antigenotoxic effects, these biological activities of SHEs can be due to its component.

Assessment of cytotoxic and apoptotic effects of benzaldehyde using different assays.

Benzaldehyde (BA) occurs naturally in a number of plants, including cherry, fig and peach fruit and carnation flowers at therapeutic doses. In addition, it is used in cosmetics, personal care products and food as a preservative. In this study, we aimed to determine the cytotoxic and apoptotic effects of different concentrations of BA on cultured human lymphocytes using lactate dehydrogenase assay, cell proliferation (water-soluble tetrazolium salts-1) assay and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) test (apoptotic test) as a group of cytotoxicity tests at 6th and 24th h on human lymphocyte cell culture. The cytotoxicity increased when cells were treated with 10, 25 and 50 µg/mL concentrations of BA (p < 0.05). Moreover, treatment of the cells with the same concentrations significantly decreased the cell number at the 6th and 24th hours (p < 0.05). TUNEL assay results also show that the concentration of BA at 10, 25 and 50 µg/mL caused DNA damage significantly (p < 0.05). According to our results, the toxic and genotoxic effects of BA have to be further evaluated before using in cosmetic and food products.

Evaluation of cytotoxicity of a new hemostatic agent Ankaferd Blood Stopper® using different assays.

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of the Ankaferd Blood Stopper® (ABS), on cell viability, cytotoxicity, and erythrocyte numbers in in vitro cultured human blood cells. We studied the cytotoxic effects of the ABS using lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) assay, cell proliferation (WST-1) assay and hemolytic assay. The cytotoxicity increased when cells were treated with ABS dilutions of 5%, 12.5%, 25%, and 50% (p < 0.05). Moreover, treatment of the cells with the same concentrations significantly elevated the cell number at 24 and 48 h (p < 0.05). ABS causes a significant increase (p < 0.05) in the hemolytic activity on human erythrocytes and hemolytic activity increases with increase in ABS concentrations. The red blood cell aggregation and cell membrane disruption during the coagulation process lead to induction of hemolytic activity and increase of LDH level in cell culture medium. In addition, ABS has proliferative effects on human leukocytes. Based on these results, ABS can be used as an alternative blood stopping agent safely.

Protective role of vitamins A, C, and E against the genotoxic damage induced by aflatoxin B1 in cultured human lymphocytes.

In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effect of vitamins A, C, and E against aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) on blood cultures in relation to induction of sister chromatid exchange (SCE). The results indicated genotoxic and mutagenic damage in cultured human lymphocytes exposed to AFB1. The results showed that 5 microM concentration of AFB1 increased SCE. When vitamins A, C, and E were added to AFB1, the frequency of SCE decreased. These results suggest that vitamins A, C, and E could effectively inhibit AFB1-induced SCE, which may partially responsible for its mutagenic effect of AFB1. Besides, the protective effect of vitamins A, C, and E against AFB1 was increased in a dose-dependent manner (i.e., as the doses increased, their protective effects also increased). There was a significant decrease in the SCE frequency in AFB1-treated group compared with the groups receiving AFB1 and also vitamins A, C, and E. The most effective concentration was 100 microM vitamin C, and the lowest effective concentration was 0.5 microM vitamin A. Vitamin C has the most effective concentration of 100 microM, and vitamin A has the lowest effective concentration of 0.5 microM. The order of the decreasing effect of the SCE frequency of vitamins was as follows: vitamin C > vitamin E > vitamin A.

The antioxidant effects of vitamin A, C, and E on aflatoxin B1-induced oxidative stress in human lymphocytes.

The aim of this study was to investigate the possible protective role of vitamin A, C, and E on aflatoxin B(1)-induced in human lymphocytes using biochemical approaches. The control group received dimethyl sulfoxide, the second group of cultures were administered aflatoxin B(1) (AFB(1)) at a dose of 5 muM. The other group of cultures were treated with AFB(1)+vitamin A (0.5 and 1.0 and 1.5 microM) and AFB(1)+vitamin C (25, 50, and 100 microM) and AFB(1)+vitamin E (40, 100, and 200 microM). The results of this experiment show that AFB(1) significantly decreased the level of GSH and the activities of superoxide dismutase and GPx and increased level of malondialdehyde. Simultaneous supplementation with vitamin A, C, and E restored these parameters to that of normal range. In conclusion, vitamin A, C, and E exhibited protective effects in human lymphocytes by inhibiting AFB(1)-induced ROS generation.