Abstract
Rhaponticum carthamoides has a long tradition of use in Siberian folk medicine. The roots and rhizomes of this species are used in various dietary supplements or nutraceutical preparations to increase energy level or eliminate physical weakness. This is the first report to reveal the protective and DNA repair stimulating abilities of R. carthamoides root extracts in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells exposed to an oxidative agent. Both transformed root extract (TR extract) and extract of soil-grown plant roots (NR extract) may be responsible for stimulating CHO cells to repair oxidatively induced DNA damage, but CHO cells stimulated with extract from the transformed roots demonstrated significantly stronger properties than cells treated with the soil-grown plant root extract. These differences in biological activity may be attributed to the differences in the content of phenolic compounds in these root extracts. Preincubation of the CHO cells with TR and NR extracts showed an increase in gene expression and protein levels of catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD2). R. carthamoides may possess antioxidant properties that protect CHO cells against oxidative stress.
Highlights
Oxidative stress is mediated by reactive oxygen species (ROS)and is caused by an imbalance between the production of free radicals and the activity of the antioxidant defenses.ROS, free radicals such as superoxide anion and hydroxyl radicals (OH∙) and non-free radicals radical (O2∙−), species such as hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and singlet oxygen (1O2) may injure cells by causing lipid membrane peroxidation and DNA strand breaks, inducing cellular dysfunction and their consequent apoptosis
The cellular defense systems against free radicals consist of antioxidant enzymes such as catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD), and superoxide dismutase (SOD2)
MTT assay was used to determine the cytotoxic effect of R. carthamoides transformed roots extract (TR extract) and roots of soilgrown plant extract (NR extract) after 24 h incubation with the Chinese hamster ovary cells (CHO cells) (Figure 1)
Summary
ROS, free radicals such as superoxide anion and hydroxyl radicals (OH∙) and non-free radicals radical (O2∙−), species such as hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and singlet oxygen (1O2) may injure cells by causing lipid membrane peroxidation and DNA strand breaks, inducing cellular dysfunction and their consequent apoptosis. The cellular defense systems against free radicals consist of antioxidant enzymes such as catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD), and superoxide dismutase (SOD2). These important antioxidant enzymes play a key role in eliminating superoxide and hydrogen peroxide, thereby suppressing potential damage [2, 3]. Phenolic compounds widely distributed in plants are known to be effective ROS scavengers. They are natural antioxidants which can prevent oxidative DNA damage and lipid peroxidation. The caffeoylquinic acids (e.g., chlorogenic acid) are free radical and metal ion scavengers and have been shown to modulate the gene expression of antioxidant enzymes [6]
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