8. Evaluation of Snow Fungus Polysaccharides on benzo[a]pyrene-induced DNA Damage

Abstract

Snow fungus, Tremella fuciformis, has been demonstrated to have numerous health benefits including purported chemopreventive properties due to free radical-scavenging ability. Protective effects derived from snow fungus polysaccharides are evaluated on Chinese hamster lung fibroblasts (CCL-39) exposed to carcinogen benzo[a]pyrene known to cause free radical formation and oxidative stress to cells.
 In this experiment, it was hypothesized that the naturally occurring polysaccharides in snow fungus are able to protect against or reduce oxidative stress-induced DNA damage. Polysaccharides were isolated through an alkaline extraction and in-vitro digestion. DNA damage was measured using the single-cell gel electrophoresis comet assay after exposure to benzo[a]pyrene and polysaccharide extract to lung fibroblasts. Results were calculated using the mean and standard deviation data of tail length and area, respectively. Each damaged cell was measured and analyzed through ImageJ Editing Software. The results indicate a promising trend which depict snow fungus polysaccharides yielding lower levels of DNA damage compared to cells exposed to benzo[a]pyrene and compared to the negative control (phosphate buffered saline and Dulbecco’s cell medium). This study suggests polysaccharides from Tremella fuciformis could truly prevent cellular DNA damage by protecting against oxidative stress.