Evaluation of antigenotoxicity effects of umbelliprenin on human peripheral lymphocytes exposed to oxidative stress

Abstract

The protective properties of a prenylated coumarin, umbelliprenin (UMB), on the human lymphocytes DNA lesions were tested. Lymphocytes were isolated from blood samples taken from healthy volunteers. DNA breaks and resistance to H(2)O(2)-induced damage were measured using a single-cell microgel electrophoresis technique under alkaline conditions (comet assay). Human lymphocytes were incubated in UMB (10, 25, 50, 100, 200, and 400 microM) alone or a combination of different concentrations of UMB (10, 25, 50, 100, 200, and 400 microM) and 25 microM H(2)O(2). Untreated cells, ascorbic acid (AA; 25, 50, 100, 200, and 400 microM) and H(2)O(2) (25 microM) were considered as negative control, positive control, and the standard antioxidant agent for our study, respectively. Single cells were analyzed with "TriTek Cometscore version 1.5" software. The DNA damage was expressed as percent tail DNA. UMB exhibited a concentration-dependent increase in protection activity against DNA damage induced by 25 microM H(2)O(2) (from 67.28% to 39.17%). The antigenotoxic activity of AA, in the range 0-50 microM, was greater than that of UMB. However, no significant difference (p > 0.05) in the protective activity was found between UMB and AA at concentrations of approximately higher than 50 microM.