Assessment of protective effects of glucosamine and N-acetyl glucosamine against DNA damage induced by hydrogen peroxide in human lymphocytes

Abstract

The antigenotoxic activity of glucosamine (GlcN) and N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) in human peripheral lymphocytes exposed to oxidative stress was investigated. Human lymphocytes were treated with different concentrations of these aminosugars (0, 2.5, 5, 10, 20 and 40 mM) and 25 µM H₂O₂ simultaneously and evaluated by single cell gel electrophoresis technique (Comet assay). The single cells were analyzed using “TriTek Cometscore version 1.5” software and the data were presented as % DNA in tail. Both GlcN and GlcNAc at examined concentrations (2.5, 5, 10, 20 and 40 mM) did not reveal any genotoxicity compared to the vehicle control (PBS). Glucosamine at all concentrations (2.5, 5, 10, 20 and 40 mM) showed a significant protective activity (% DNA in tail ranging from 16.07 ± 0.85 to 5.47 ± 0.26, p < 0.001) against H₂O₂ induced DNA damage (% DNA in tail = 38 ± 0.65) while its N-acetylated analog only indicated a slight DNA protection at concentration of 40 mM (% DNA in tail = 33.4 ± 1.17, p < 0.01). We concluded that GlcN at tested concentrations exhibited potent antigenotoxic effect and its protection activity might be related to the presence of 2-NH₂ moiety in its chemical backbone.

• Antigenotoxicity
• comet assay
• oxidative stress
• reactive oxygen species

Acknowledgements

This work was supported financially by a research grant from the Vice Chancellor for Research of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran. The results described in this paper were part of a PharmD student thesis.