Cytotoxicity of grape marc extracts with antioxidant activity

GERMANO MARIA JOSE; MUÑOZ, MD; GOMEZ MEJIBA SE; RAMIREZ DC; GIANNINI F

San Luis

Otro; XXXII Reunión Anual de la Sociedad de Biología de Cuyo; 2014

Sociedad de Biología de Cuyo

ABSTRACT CYTOTOXICITY OF GRAPE MARC EXTRACTS WITH ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY Every animal disease involves oxidative stress and inflammation, thus the search for natural and synthetic compounds with anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties is desired as food supplements. Extracts from natural products are an important source compounds with those properties. Grapes are an important source of antioxidants in our diet. Previously we reported the antioxidant activity of extracts of grape marcs. However, to be useful as food supplement those extract have to be effective at non-cytotoxic doses. Thus herein we aimed at testing the citotoxicity of methanolic and aqueous marcs extracts obtained from Malbec, Syrah, Chardonnay and Tannat grape?s varieties. To accomplish our aim we incubated RAW-264.7 cells-a mouse macrophage-like cell line, with different concentrations (0, 0.001, 0.01, 0.1 and 1 mg/ml) of the grape-marc extracts diluted in the culture medium for 24h, afterwards we measured cell viability, using the MTT assay. Under our experimental conditions, concentrations of extracts higher than 0.1 mg/ml caused significant changes in cell viability. However, none of the other concentrations of marc extracts caused significant changes in cell viability. Taking together, our data suggest that marc extracts can be useful food supplements with antioxidant properties, without causing significant cytotoxicity at therapeutic dosages. However, further in vivo studies are needed to test both toxicity and antioxidant efficiency.