Antioxidant and antimutagenic activities of Viscum album fruit ethanolic extract in human lymphocytes

Polyphenolic compounds are widely distributed in plants and known to be excellent antioxidants in vitro. They have the capacity to reduce free-radical formation by scavenging free-radicals. In this studywe have evaluated the antioxidant and antimutagenic potencies of polyphenolic compounds of Viscum album against trichloroethylene (TCE)-induced oxidative and genotoxic damage. V. album extract (VAE0.5 g/ml) protected human lymphocytes against TCE. In chromosomal aberration (CA) analysis, no significant increase in total aberrations were found after treatment with TCE and all VAE concentrations. The mitotic index (MI) showed significant increase in 0.5 ìg/ml VAE samples whencompared with TCE-treated (2 ìM) group. VAE (0.5 ìg/ml) reduced the levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) significantly wherease VAE (1.0 and 2.0 ìg/ml) samples increased MDA concentrations significantly. We have also shown that the various DNA effects of TCE treatment seem to be DNA damages, but not mutations as TCE treated profiles were reverted back to the control like profiles by most probably DNA repair mechanisms in VAE 0.5 g/ml treated group

Re-exploring Planaria as a model organism for genotoxicity monitoring by an "improved random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD)*" approach

In monitoring genotoxicity, it is important to have sensitive, but non-specific assays to indicate a wide range of DNA damage mechanisms. In this paper, a new and flexible approach for the qualitative detection of induced DNA effects, DNA damages and mutations, accelerated by exploiting planaria regeneration and using an improved RAPD assay, is presented