A validated method for the simultaneous determination of prominent volatile cleavage products (CPs) of β-carotene in cell culture media has been developed. Target CPs comprised β-ionone (β-IO), cyclocitral (CC), dihydroactinidiolide (DHA), and 1,1,6-trimethyltetraline (TMT). CPs were extracted by solid-phase extraction applying a phenyl adsorbent, eluted with 10% (v/v) tetrahydrofuran in n-hexane, and identified and quantified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry with electron impact ionization. Method validation addressed linearity confirmation over two application ranges and homoscedasticity testing. Recoveries from culture media were between 71.7% and 95.7% at 1.0 μg/ml. Precision of recoveries determined in intra-day (N = 5) and inter-day (N = 15) assays were <2.0% and <4.8%, respectively. Limit of detection and limit of quantification of the analysis method were <18.0 and <53.0 ng/ml for β-IO, CC, and TMT, whereas 156 and 474 ng/ml were determined for DHA, respectively. Although extractions of blank matrix proved the absence of interfering peaks, statistical comparison between slopes determined for instrumental and total method linearity revealed significant differences. The method was successfully applied in selecting an appropriate solvent for the fortification of culture media with volatile CPs, including the determination of their availability over the incubation period. For the first time, quantification of volatile CPs in treatment solutions and culture media for primary cells becomes accessible by this validated method.FigureCultured primary rat hepatocytes in phase contrast after nuclea staining with DAPI including a chromatogram (GC-MS) of volatile cleavage products of b-carotene, which are presumed to exert genotoxic effects on hepatocytes and pneumocytes

When we investigated the genotoxicity of beta-carotene cleavage products (CPs) in primary rat hepatocytes stimulated to proliferate, we observed dose-dependent increases of chromosomal aberrations, sister chromatid exchanges and micronuclei. In contrast to other genotoxic substances, however, this increased genotoxicity was not accompanied by increased cytotoxicity. As a consequence we observed metaphases showing massive chromosomal damage, indicating inhibition of apoptosis by CPs enabling these cells to proceed in the cell cycle. Since proliferative stimulation by growth factors may support this effect, the in vitro toxicological effects of CPs were studied on proliferatively quiescent primary rat hepatocytes. A significant increase of both apoptosis and necrosis was found. Supplementation with antioxidants did not significantly lower the level of apoptosis, while the level of necrosis was significantly reduced by Trolox and N-acetylcysteine at all concentrations tested as well as ascorbic acid (50 microM) and a combination of Trolox (50 microM) and ascorbic acid (50 microM). These observations indicate that a) the cytotoxic potential in combination with the genotoxic potential of CPs may promote the initiation of cells due to compensatory cell division in exposed tissues and may aggravate inflammatory processes under chronic exposure, and b) the applied antioxidants may protect from cytotoxicity primarily via the detoxification of aldehydic beta-carotene cleavage products.