several lichen species have been used for medicinal purposes throughout the ages, and they were reported to be effective in the treatment of different disorders including tuberculosis, hemorrhoids, ulcer, dysentery and cancer. it is revealed that they may be easily accessible sources of natural drugs that could be used as a possible food supplement or in pharmaceutical industry after their safe...

PURPOSE Despite its prominent contribution to cancer cure and palliation, around 1% to 5% of cancer patients suffer serious side effects from radiotherapy. A cardinal goal in the fields of radiobiology and oncology is to predict normal tissue radiosensitivity of a cancer patient before radiotherapy. Higher tumor control rates are likely if radiotherapy individualization could be achieved by app...

Genotoxicity studies on toxic metals and their organic compounds are very important, especially so in the investigation of the effects of these compounds on the aquatic environments where they tend to accumulate. The use of endemic aquatic organisms as biological sentinels has proved useful to environmental monitoring. We assessed the mutagenic potential of tributyltin (TBT) and inorganic lead ...

RATIONALE DNA damage and chromosomal alterations in peripheral lymphocytes parallels DNA mutations in tumor tissues. OBJECTIVE The aim of our study was to predict the presence of neoplastic colorectal lesions by specific biomarkers in "medium risk" individuals (age 50 to 75, with no personal or family of any colorectal neoplasia). METHODS AND RESULTS We designed a prospective cohort observa...

We devised a new in vitro method to estimate the proportionof dividing cells and the potential doubling time ('/',„„ I of tumors using the same technique as with the cytokinesis-block micronucleus assay. The useful ness of this methodology was confirmed by comparing the data with those obtained by flow cytometry after bromodeoxyuridine (BrdUrd) incorporation. Xenografted human and murine tu...

Background: About 83% of patients with breast cancer (BC) undergo radiation therapy. These patients show various degrees of mild to acute reactions during and after the completion of treatment.The aim of this study was to compare inherent radiosensitivity of gamma-irradiated G0-lymphocytes between BC patients and normal individuals using cytokinesis blocked micronucleous assay. Methods: Three t...

The micronucleus assay (MNT) in human lymphocytes is frequently used to assess chromosomal damage as a consequence of environmental mutagen exposure, to assess the effect of mutagens or to search for reduced DNA repair capacity after a mutagenic challenge. We have established an automated scoring procedure for the cytokinesis blocked MNT based on computerized image analysis (Metasystems Metafer...

background: the purpose of this paper is to establish an easy and reliable biodosimeter protocol to evaluate the biological effects of proton beams. materials and methods: human peripheral blood lymphocytes were irradiated using proton beams (let: 34.6 kev μm−1), and the chromosome aberrations induced were analyzed using cytokinesis-blocked (cb) micronucleus (mn) assay. to determine the efficie...

In a cross-sectional study of women in nursing team at university hospital southern Brazil, we studied DNA damage, salivary cortisol levels, and cognition. damage was measured blood leukocytes with the comet assay micronucleus test. Salivary levels were determined upon waking, 30 min later, bedtime. Cognition evaluated according to Stroop, Digit span Word tests. Cortisol on waking up associated...

The underlying cause(s) of methionine-dependency and its relevance to cancer remains unclear. We aimed to determine whether (i) normal human lymphocytes exhibit methionine-dependency, (ii) baseline levels of genetic damage are related to methionine-dependency and (iii) methionine-dependence can be explained, in part, by common polymorphisms in methionine synthase and methylenetetrahydrofolate r...