SUMAC FRUIT EXTRACTS EXHIBIT ANTIOXIDANT PROPERTIESON HUMAN MYOBLAST AND ZEBRAFISH EMBRYOS

Abstract

Cell therapy is an intervention therapy where adult or embryonic stem cells are transplanted into a diseased tissue to treat damage or injury. This promising therapy can be performed in skeletal muscle patients with muscular dystrophy; nevertheless oxidative stress reduces muscle precursor cells (myoblasts) survival in the transplantation assays. Enhancement of the survival of injected cells within the host tissue can be approached by pre-treating cells with antioxidant molecules or inducing their endogenous antioxidant capacity. It is therefore important to identify and characterize new antioxidant molecules that control the viability of stem cells and precursor muscle cells. Many plants in Middle East region have shown a promising potential to provide potent antioxidants, amongst these we find sumac (Rhus coriaria L.), a rich source of hydrolysable tannins which are strong antioxidants. Our in vitro results showed, by trypan blue exclusion assay and cell cycle, that pre-treatment of myoblasts (LHCN-M2) with sumac extracts increased the viability of cells after inducing oxidative stress. A concentration of 0.3 µg.mL-1 of ethyl acetate fraction derived from ethanol crude extract, exhibited the best protective effect against hydrogen peroxide-induced oxidative stress and induce cellular adhesion restoration. Finally, our data showed that superoxide dismutase mediates the antioxidant effect of ethyl acetate fraction without any modification of MyoD expression while inducing a decrease in myogenin expression. Whereas, zebrafish embryo pre-treatment with low concentrations of ethyl acetate fraction protected embryos from H2O2 induced death in vivo.