Apoptose induzida por extrato aquoso de Pteridium aquilinum em células de glândula submandibular humana (HSG) e de epitélio bucal (OSCC-3)

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2006

RESUMO

The bracken Pteridium aquilinum is considered one of the most important toxic plants, not only for its extensive geographic distribution, but also for provoking, in different animal species that use it as food, severe poisoning and the development of tumors in the digestory and urinary tracts. Moreover, epidemiologic studies have related the high incidence of esophagus and stomach cancers in human populations to the use of the bracken as food. This incidence may also be related to the indirect exposition to bracken carcinogens, as by the aspiration of its spores, the ingestion of milk from cows feeding on the plant, or by the consumption of water contaminated by such composites. Aiming to better understand the toxicity mechanisms induced by braken fern, this study evaluated the genotoxic and cytotoxic effects of the plant aqueous extract, at three different concentrations (0.20, 0.40 and 0.67 mg/mL), over human submandibular gland (HSG) and buccal epitelium (OSCC-3) cells. The comet assay showed that the extract was genotoxic for both cell lines, at the different studied concentrations, but the results were not dose-dependent. DNA ladder assay, on the other hand, did not show an unusual DNA fragmentation pattern, possibly due to the low percentage of severely damaged cells. The morphological (light microscopy) and ultrastructural (transmission electron microscopy) analyses showed that the extract provoked conspicuous alterations in both cell types, such as cromatin uncommon condensation, nuclear picnosis, cellular volume decrease, nuclear envelope rupture, the presence of numerous vacuoles of different sizes and the formation of apoptotic bodies. This results, added to those obtained with the acridine orange/ethidium bromide fluorescent dyeing test and in the TUNEL assay, clearly demonstrated that the bracken extract was cytotoxic to HSG and OSCC-3 cells, at all the studied concentrations, and that cellular degeneration occurred mainly by apoptosis

ASSUNTO(S)

apoptose biologia molecular oscc-3 toxicidade hsg dano ao dna pteridium aquilinum

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