gms | German Medical Science

78th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

16.05. - 20.05.2007, Munich

DNA protective effects of vitamin C in human mucosal cell cultures

Meeting Abstract

  • corresponding author Philipp Baumeister - Univ. HNO-Klinik, Großhadern, Munich, Germany
  • Thomas Hübner - Kliniisch experimentelle Onkologie, Munich, Germany
  • Christoph Matthias - Univ. HNO-Klinik, Großhadern, Munich, Germany
  • Ulrich Harréus - Univ. HNO-Klinik, Gr0ßhadern, Munich, Germany

German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. 78th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. Munich, 16.-20.05.2007. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2007. Doc07hno064

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/hno2007/07hno064.shtml

Published: August 8, 2007

© 2007 Baumeister et al.
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Outline

Text

Background: Epidemiologic studies suggest, that an antioxidants rich diet lowers the risk for certain cancers. In our study, vitamin C, the most abundant dietary antioxidant was tested on its protective effects towards oxidative induced DNA damage in human mucosal cell cultures. Material and methods: Miniorgancultures (MOC) were produced out of oropharyngeal mucosa samples, resected during surgery. MOC were incubated on three following days with vitamin C (10 µM and 100 µM) for 30 minutes. On the third day oxidative DNA damage was induced incubating MOC with hydrogenperoxide for 30 minutes. Resulting DNA fragmentation was evaluated using the formamidopyrimidin glycosylase comet assay, a highly sensitive method for the detection of oxidative damaged DNA.

Results: Preincubation of MOC with vitamin C reduced the hydrogenperoxide induced DNA fragmentation in a dosis dependent manner for more than a half. Discussion: Since in a previous study preincubation of human lymphocytes with vitamin C led to contradictory results, these tests with mucosal cell cultures clearly show the protective effects. These results contribute to the further understanding of epidemiological proved chemopreventive action of vitamin C and underline the importance of such experiments on human target tissue.