Abstract

Viscum album (VA) extract as an immunomodulator was tested in an in vitro model to investigate DNA repair in damaged peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of ten breast cancer patients. The cells were exposed by gamma rays or 4-hydroxycyclophosphamide (4-HCy). Two hours after exposure the following were measured, without or with VA extract (1) DNA repair using the alkaline sucrose gradient for the sedimentation of DNA strand breaks, (2) DNA-gamma-production in the supernatant of the cultured cells. The VA extract led to an improvement of DNA repair in gamma-ray or 4-HCy damaged PBMC and to a significant increase of the IFN-gamma-production both in undamaged and in damaged cells. The results indicate that the VA extract affects positively DNA repair in PBMC damaged by two different agents and suggest that an increased IFN-gamma-production may play an important role in the DNA repair process.

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