Indian Journal of Science and Technology
DOI: 10.17485/ijst/2010/v3i3.12
Year: 2010, Volume: 3, Issue: 3, Pages: 322-327
Original Article
B.S. Balakumar1 , K. Ramanathan2 , S. Kumaresan1 and R. Suresh1*
1 Dept. Of Plant biology & Plant Biotechnol., RKM. Vivekananda College, Mylapore, Chennai 600 004, India
2 Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA
[email protected]
Serious health problems in humans are caused by arsenic-exposure, which is wide spread in the environment. Sodium arsenite, capable of inducing macromolecular damage is evaluated for its DNA damaging effect in the blood, liver, kidney and bone marrow cells of Wistar rats. Also the ameliorative potential of α–tocopherol (400 mg/kg body weight) and ascorbic acid (200 mg/kg body weight) supplemented orally to arsenic-intoxicated rats (100 ppm in drinking water for thirty days) in neutralizing the genotoxic effect of arsenite was explored. Detection of DNA damage at cellular level is evaluated by single cell gel electrophoresis or comet assay, under alkaline conditions. This study demonstrated that dietary supplementation of antioxidants such as vitamins C and E could ameliorate arsenite induced toxicity in experimental rats.
Keywords: Arsenic, antioxidants, ascorbic acid, comet assay, DNA damage, genotoxicity, in vivo, α- tocopherol.
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