The European Food Safety Authority has prepared a draft for a harmonised strategy for the risk assessment of genotoxic and carcinogenic substances and presented this draft for discussion. The concept examines the exposure of the consumer to a specific substance and compares this with the carcinogenic effect of a defined dose in an animal experiment. Genotoxic and carcinogenic compounds are thus...

Genotoxic stresses such as DNA damage or abnormal chromosome segregation induced by various extrinsic or intrinsic factors often take place in all kinds of cells, which play important roles in tumorigenesis. Organisms have developed many molecular mechanisms regarding these genotoxic stresses during the evolutional progress. Protein postmodifications such as phosphorylation or sumoylation have ...

Additives, especially colors, are in widespread use in the food industry. With the exception of the quinolines, food colors are relatively weak mutagens and are certified as safe additives despite reports that some people have allergic reactions to them. The number of food additives is still on the increase, and research on their potential mutagenic/carcinogenic activity in vivo is very expensi...

Ascorbic acid is well known antioxidant. The antioxidant property can be helpful in reducing clastogenic, mutagenic and carcinogenic properties of certain chemical agents. In this context, an anticlastogenic activity of ascorbic was studied against the genotoxic damage induced by norethynodrel, using chromosomal aberrations and sister chromatid exchanges as parameters. The treatments of differe...

In this research, the genotoxic effect of Picrorrhiza Rhizoma (PR) aqueous extract was evaluated using the mouse micronucleus test. PR extract was administered once a day for 2 continuous days by oral gavage to male ICR mice at doses of 2000, 1000 and 500 mg/kg. Cyclophosphamide was used as a known genotoxic agent in a positive control. The appearance of a micronucleus (MN) in polychromatic ery...

Previously, we demonstrated that undifferentiated human embryonic stem cells (hESC) displayed higher resistance to oxidative and genotoxic stress compared to somatic cells, but did not further probe the underlying mechanisms. Using H₂O₂-induced genotoxicity as a model, this study investigated whether higher resistance of hESC to oxidative and genotoxic stress could be due to lower innate basal ...

Chemotherapeutic regimens involve the systemic administration of genotoxic compounds that induce cancer cell death via well-established DNA damage response signaling networks. Less understood is how the treatment of other cell types within the tumor microenvironment affects the therapeutic response. Here we discuss recent work that shows that tumor-adjacent cells can respond to genotoxic stress...

DNA repair pathways enable cancer cells to survive DNA damage induced after genotoxic therapies. Tyrosine kinase receptors (TKRs) have been reported as regulators of the DNA repair machinery. TIE2 is a TKR overexpressed in human gliomas at levels that correlate with the degree of increasing malignancy. Following ionizing radiation, TIE2 translocates to the nucleus, conferring cells with an enha...

A wide range of aquatic plants have been proven to release allelochemicals, of them phenolics and tannin are considered rather widely distributed. Tannins, however, have been demonstrated to have genotoxic capacity. In our study genotoxic potential of Lythrum salicaria L. (Purple Loosestrife, family Lythraceae) was assessed by the mussel micronucleus test, using Unio pictorum. In parallel, tota...

Vanillic acid, a vegetable phenolic compound, is a strong antioxidant. The aim of the present study was to determine its effects on mitomycin C-induced DNA damage in human blood lymphocyte cultures in vitro, both alone and in combination with mitomycin C (MMC). The cytokinesis block micronucleus test and alkaline comet assay were used to determine genotoxic damage and anti-genotoxic effects of ...