hesa-a exerts its cytoprotective effects through scavenging of free radicals: an in vitro study

background: natural medicines have been recently considered more reasonable for human use most notably due to their safety and tolerance. hesa-a is a marine-originated herbal medicine with a variety of healing effects. however, its exact biological mechanism is not clear. the pre-sent study aimed at the evaluation of the hesa-a antioxidant effect. methods: chinese hamster ovary (cho) and human embryonic kidney (hek293t) cells were treated with different concentrations of hesa-a and h2o2 followed by cell proliferation assays. the antioxidant effect of the hesa-a preparations was evaluated by an antioxidant assay kit. results: the viability of cho and hek293t cells were about 89% following their incubation with 100 and 200 ng/ml hesa-a, respectively for 1.5 hrs. however, when the cells were incubated with concentrations of 300 ng/ml or more, the cell viability significantly decreased to 48% compare to the control cells. the cytotoxic effects of h2o2 were observed after 2 hrs of incubation of the hek293t or cho cells with 10 mm or 16 mm h2o2, respectively, while in the presence of hesa-a the cytotoxicity was significantly decreased. antioxidant assay revealed that hesa-a scavenges free radicals. conclusion: the findings indicate that hesa-a had cytoprotective effects in vitro, and that such an effect might be due to antioxidant properties.