Effects of Аstragalus dasyanthus Extracts on the level of DNA damages in human lymphocytes
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.71336/jabs.1585Keywords:
Comet assay, genotoxicity, in vitro plants, aqueous and alcohol extractsAbstract
The use of bioactive compounds of plant origin in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries has become increasingly widespread, and therefore the question of the safety of such raw materials arises, primarily for the genetic material of cells. In addition, an important aspect is the study of the possibility of growing potentially useful plants in vitro, which is promising in the context of the scaled-up production of standardized medicinal raw materials. In this work, the potential cytotoxic and mutagenic effects of aqueous and alcoholic extracts of the Astragalus dasyanthus Pall. plant, grown in vitro, on human lymphocytes were investigated, and their antioxidant activity was also analyzed. The contents of water-soluble sugars in aqueous and flavonoids in alcohol extracts were in sufficiently high concentrations, which indicates the effective accumulation of these substances in plants grown in vitro, and the validity of the selected extraction protocols. The content of flavonoids in methanol extracts exceeded this value in ethanol extracts by almost one and a half times. Incubation of lymphocytes with extracts at different concentrations did not lead to an increase in the number of non-viable and apoptotic cells, indicating the absence of cytotoxic effects. Aqueous extracts at a concentration of 6 μg/μl led to a statistically significant increase in the relative number of single- and double-stranded DNA breaks in cells, while lower concentrations did not show a mutagenic effect. Ethanol and methanol extracts at a concentration of 3 μg/μl showed an antimutagenic and/or reparogenic effect, reducing the level of damage present in lymphocytes by almost three times. In addition, the antioxidant activity of methanol extracts was demonstrated: the relative level of singleand double-stranded breaks in cells was significantly reduced when the Fenton reaction was performed in the presence of methanol extracts at a concentration of 3 μg/μl.
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