modulation of radiation induced changes in nucleic acid content of liver of swiss albino mouse by tinospora cordifolia (miers)

background: radiotherapy is the main modality of cancer treatment. there are many chemical radioprotectors which unfortunately have lethal or toxic effect. therefore the search is on to find out natural plant based radioprotectors. a well known medicinal plant,which is more acceptable to the body, tinospora cordifolia, was tested in animal tissues against gamma radiations. radioprotective effects of tinospora cordifolia (miers) extract against radiation induced biochemical changes in liver of swiss albino mouse were investigated. materials and methods: for experimental study, healthy swiss albino mice were selected from an inbred colony and divided into six groups and exposed to 6gy and 8gygamma radiation (control) or 6gy and 8gy gamma radiation with 5mg/ kg body weight of tc extract (experimental), sham irradiated (normal) and plant extract only. mice were sacrificed at various post irradiation intervals and liver was removed for quantitative estimation of dna and rna. results: on the first day post irradiation in control group (6gy and 8gy both). dna content decreased significantly as compared to the sham irradiated controls. then there was continuous increase uptill 28th day but it remained below the normal. decrease in dna content of liver in the experimental group (6gy) was observed on 1st day but the values were higher than that of the controls. rna content increased in the control animals treated with 6gy and 8gy which was maximum at day 3, followed by a decrease at the subsequent intervals. increase in the amount of rna was recorded in the experimental animals also. then came down to the normal on 10th day in the experimental groups (p<0.01). conclusion: these results indicate that tc is able to protect nucleic acids the liver of swiss albino mouse against gamma radiation. iran. j. radiat. res., 2010 8 (3): 179-185