Genotoxicity of monosodium glutamate.

Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is one of the most widely used flavor enhancers throughout the world. The aim of this study is to investigate the genotoxic potential of MSG by using chromosome aberrations (CAs), sister-chromatid exchanges (SCEs), cytokinesis-blocked micronucleus (CBMN), and random amplified polymorphic DNA-polimerase chain reaction (RAPD-PCR) in cultured human lymphocytes and alkaline comet assays in isolated human lymphocytes, which were incubated with six concentrations (250, 500, 1000, 2000, 4000 and 8000 µg/mL) of MSG. The result of this study indicated that MSG significantly and dose dependently increased the frequencies of CAs, SCE and MN in all treatments and times, compared with control. However, the replication (RI) and nuclear division indices (NDI) were not affected. In this paper, in vitro genotoxic effects of the MSG was also investigated on human peripheral lymphocytes by analysing the RAPD-PCR with arbitrary 10-mer primers. The changes occurring in RAPD profiles after MSG treatment include increase or decrease in band intensity and gain or loss of bands. In the comet assay, this additive caused DNA damage at all concentrations in isolated human lymphocytes after 1-h in vitro exposure. Our results demonstrate that MSG is genotoxic to the human peripheral blood lymphocytes in vitro.

Cytotoxicity and DNA interactions of some platinum(II) complexes with substituted benzimidazole ligands.

In the present study, four Pt(II) complexes with 2-ethyl (1)/or benzyl (2)/or p-chlorobenzyl (3)/or 2-phenoxymethyl (4) benzimidazole carrier ligands were evaluated for their in vitro cytotoxic activities against the human HeLa cervix, oestrogen receptor-positive MCF-7 breast, and oestrogen receptor-negative MDA-MB 231 breast cancer cell lines. The plasmid DNA interactions and inhibition of the BamHI restriction enzyme activities of the complexes were also studied. Complex 3 was found to be more active than carboplatin for all examined cell lines and comparable with cisplatin, except for the HeLa cell line.