Capability of Vitamin E as A Radioprotector in Suppressing DNA Damage Determined with Comet Assay

Abstract

Radiation has a potent to damage cells. Radiation may act directly or indirectly on deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) that results in the degeneration of tissues and necrotic, and thereby it needs a potent radioprotector to prevent these damages. Vitamin E is natural product known as an antioxidant which has potential as radioprotector. This research aimed to determine the capability of vitamin E with emphasized on the searching for its optimal concentration as radioprotector of DNA damage. This study used blood samples of healthy person irradiated with gamma rays at a dose of 6 Gy as the lethal dose to lymphocytes. The cocentrations of vitamin E from 0 to 0.8 mM was added into blood 15 minutes before irradiation. Isolation of lymphocytes was done using gradient centrifugation method. Evaluation on the capability of this compound in suppressing DNA damage was done by using alkaline Comet assay and data analysis was done using CaspLab program. The results show that addition of vitamin E could suppres these DNA damages and 0.8 mM of vitamin could reduce DNA damage up to 94.2%. We conclude that vitamin E effectively suppresed DNA damages induced by radiation. This information may benefit to the patient from negative impacts of radiotherapy.

Vitamins and Radioprotective Effect: A Review

“…Lefaix [ 53 ] used vitamin E to investigate its role in fibrotic processes, demonstrating that the protective capacity of vitamin E together with other drugs could improve such processes commonly produced in different systems after exposure to this type of radiation. According to reviewed ex vivo and in vitro studies, this vitamin is assessed in single use studies as γ -tocotrienol [ 9 ] and dl-α-tocopherol [ 12 ], respectively, being useful for the maintenance of intestinal permeability and structure and to help reduce DNA from human lymphocytes, respectively. However, in vivo studies of vitamin E [ 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 ] as the most common isoform in human and animal tissues, have been displaced by other forms, such as γ- [ 27 , 28 ] and δ- [ 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 ] tocotrienol, which appear better than other tocols as radiation protectors and radiation mitigators.…”

Evaluation on The Supplementation of Fermented Garlic Extract in Protecting Human Lymphocytes In Vitro From The Negative Impact of Gamma-Rays

“…However, in our center this activities had been just started 2 decades ago. This is intended to support the task of BATAN and we have been evaluated several natural products or chemicals such as cysteine (either combined with dimethyl sulfoxide or antibiotics) [15], ginseng [16,17] or vitamin E that was done very recently [18].…”