Protective effects of polyphenols against DNA damage induced by ochratoxin A in mice.

CARIDDI LN; SABINI MC; CAMPRA NA; MENIS CANDELA F; ESCOBAR FM; MAÑAS F; SABINI LI; DALCERO A

Congreso; XXXII Reunión Científica Anual Sociedad de Biología de Cuyo; 2014

Ochratoxin A (OTA) is one of the most abundant mycotoxins produced by some fungal species of Aspergillus and Penicillium. This mycotoxin contaminates food and foodstuff and has nephrotoxic, hepatotoxic, immunotoxic, mutagenic and genotoxic properties. Some studies shown that antioxidant compounds extracted from plants were very effective in reducing the toxic effects of mycotoxins. In previous studies, we have demonstrated that the polyphenols luteolin (L), chlorogenic acid (ChlA) and caffeic acid (CafA) counteracted the toxic effects of OTA on Vero cells and rat lymphocytes as well as ChlA decreased the genotoxicity of this mycotoxin on bone marrow cells of mice. The present study aimed to investigate the protective effect of L, ChlA and CafA against DNA damage caused by OTA on blood cells of mice. The genotoxic effects of OTA and polyphenols were assayed by the single-cell gel electrophoresis (Comet) assay in Balb/c mice. Animals were inoculated (i.p.) with: 1) PBS as negative control group; 2) methanol or DMSO/PBS as vehicle control group; 3) cyclophosphamide (20 mg/kg bw) as positive control group; 4) OTA (0.85, 1.7 and 3.4 mg/kg bw); 5) polyphenols (2.5, 5 and 10 mg/kg bw). OTA exposure at all doses caused a marked increase in tail moment respect to negative control group (p