Abstract
Pinocembrin (5, 7-dihydroxyflavanone) is a flavanone extracted from the rhizome of Boesenbergia pandurata. Our previous studies demonstrated that pinocembrin had no toxicity or mutagenicity in rats. We here evaluated its effects on the initiation and promotion stages in diethylnitrosamine-induced rat hepatocarcinogenesis, using short- and medium-term carcinogenicity tests. Micronucleated hepatocytes and liver glutathione-S-transferase placental form foci were used as end point markers. Pinocembrin was neither mutagenic nor carcinogenic in rat liver, and neither inhibited nor prevented micronucleus formation as well as GST-P positive foci formation induced by diethylnitrosamine. Interestingly, pinocembrin slightly increased the number of GST-P positive foci when given prior to diethylnitrosamine injection.
Highlights
Cancer chemoprevention is defined as the use of chemical agents to reverse, suppress, or prevent multistage carcinogenesis (Surh, 2003)
Ten mg/kg bw of pinocembrin showed a slight decrease in micronucleated hepatocytes, but there were no significant differences between groups
We found that pinocembrin did not induce micronucleus formation
Summary
Cancer chemoprevention is defined as the use of chemical agents to reverse, suppress, or prevent multistage carcinogenesis (Surh, 2003). Many dietary phytochemicals can be considered as chemopreventive agents because they have been shown to inhibit carcinogenesis (Debersac et al, 2001). Flavanones are a subclass of flavonoids that naturally occur in various plant species, including spices and condiments, cereals, vegetables and fruits. Hsiao et al (2007) showed that flavanone and 2’-OH flavanone inhibited the invasion and metastasis of lung cancer cells in both in vitro and in vivo models. Naringenin reduced tumor size and weight in N-methyl-N’-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine-induced rat gastric carcinogenesis (Ekambaram et al, 2007), and inhibited glial tumor cell proliferation in rat C6 glioma models (Sabarinathan et al, 2011).
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