Genotoxicity induced by nerol, an essential oil present in citric plants using human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and HepG2/C3A cells as a model

ABSTRACT

Nerol (cis-3,7-dimethyl-2,6-octadien-1-ol) is a monoterpene widely used in cosmetic products, household detergents and cleaners, as well as a flavoring in several food products. Despite the high level of human exposure to nerol, an absence of studies regarding potential genetic toxicity in human cells exists. The aim of this investigation was to examine the cytotoxic and genotoxic potential of this monoterpene on human peripheral blood mononuclear cells as well as hepatic metabolizing HepG2/C3A human cell line. Cytotoxicity was assessed using trypan blue staining and MTT assay while genotoxicity was determined utilizing the comet and micronucleus test. Cytotoxicity tests showed cell viability greater than 70% for concentrations between 2.5 and 500 µg/ml. Both cell types exhibited significant DNA damage and chromosomal mutations after medium and high concentration incubation with nerol indicating that the safety of use of this monoterpene in various formulations to which humans are exposed needs to be monitored and requires more comprehensive investigations.

KEYWORDS:

• Cis-3
• 7-dimethyl-2
• 6-octadien-1-ol
• comet assay
• micronucleus test
• MTT assay
• clastogenic/aneugenic effects

Highlights

- In vitro assays show genotoxicity of nerol on human cells.

- Nerol produces chromosomal mutations on human leukocytes and HepG2/C3A cells.

Credit authorship contribution statement

B.O. Silva; J.B. Orlando: Investigation, data collection. C.L. Pires; K.A. Hiruma-Lima: F.F. Perazzo: Methodology, statistical analysis. I.O.M. Gaivão: Language revision, writing review. E.L. Maistro: Conceptualization, Supervision, Resources, Funding, Writing original draft and review, editing.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Funding

The research was supported by the FAPESP – Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (Grant: 2017/24149-4), CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico), and UIDB/CVT/00772/2020 funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT);Scholarship from PIBIC/CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico).