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Antioxidative, anticancer and genotoxic properties of α-pinene on N2a neuroblastoma cells

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Abstract

α-Pinene, an organic monoterpene, is found in essential oils of pine and coniferous trees. To date, although various biological activities of α-pinene have been demonstrated, its neurotoxicity has never been explored. Therefore in this study, we aimed to describe in vitro antiproliferative and/or cytotoxic properties by 3-(4,5-dimetylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) test, genotoxic damage potentials by single cell gel electrophoresis, and oxidative effects by total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and total oxidative stress (TOS) analysis of α-pinene. Statistical analysis of MTT assay results indicated significant (p < 0.05) decreases of the cell proliferation rates in healthy neurons treated with α-pinene at only 400 mg/L, while significant decreases were observed in N2a cells at 100, 200 and 400 mg/L. On the other hand, the mean values of the total scores of cells showing DNA damage were not found significantly different from the control values on both cells. In addition, our results indicated that 10 and 25 mg/L of α-pinene treatment caused increases of TAC levels in primary rat neurons without any alterations of its level in N2a cells. However, α-pinene treatments at higher doses led to increases of TOS levels in both cell types. Overall our results suggest that α-pinene is of a limited therapeutic use as an anticancer agent.

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Abbreviations

MTT:

3-(4,5-dimetylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide

NB:

neuroblastoma

SCGE:

single cell gel electrophoresis

TAC:

total antioxidant capacity

TOS:

total oxidative stress

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Atatürk University, 25240, Erzurum, Turkey

    Elanur Aydin & Fatime Geyikoğlu

  2. Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Science, Erzurum Technical University, Erzurum, Turkey

    Hasan Türkez

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  1. Elanur Aydin
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  2. Hasan Türkez
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Correspondence to Elanur Aydin.

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Aydin, E., Türkez, H. & Geyikoğlu, F. Antioxidative, anticancer and genotoxic properties of α-pinene on N2a neuroblastoma cells. Biologia 68, 1004–1009 (2013). https://doi.org/10.2478/s11756-013-0230-2

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