Protective role of tocopherol and ascorbic acid in taxol-treated human erythrocytes in vitro

Abstract

Taxol is a well-known anticancer agent. It is used for the treatment of several kinds of cancer, including breast cancer, lung cancer and ovarian cancer. In spite of being a good chemotherapeutic agent, taxol has several side effects. Drug-induced haemolytic anaemia is one of the most common side effects of taxol. This study investigated the haemolytic effect of taxol on normal erythrocytes and the protective effect of natural antioxidants ascorbic acid and tocopherol in the presence of taxol. We evaluated the osmotic fragility and the activity of enzymes superoxide dismutase and catalase of erythrocytes in the presence of taxol alone and taxol in combination with tocopherol and ascorbic acid. Taxol-induced haematological perturbation significantly caused haemolysis and reduced the activities of superoxide dismutase and catalase in erythrocytes. The antioxidants tocopherol and ascorbic acid demonstrated a protective effect when added to taxol. The combination of tocopherol with taxol significantly protected the osmotic lysis of erythrocytes and increased the activities of superoxide dismutase but had less effect on catalase. Ascorbic acid showed significant protection of erythrocytes from osmotic lysis but didn’t show any significant effect on superoxide and catalase. The results suggest that both antioxidants, especially tocopherol, could exhibit a protective effect against taxol-induced haematological toxicity.