Genotoxic potential of nonsteroidal hormones

Abstract

Hormones are cellular products involved in the regulation of a large number of processes in living systems, and which by their actions affect the growth, function and metabolism of cells. Considering that hormones are compounds normally present in the organism, it is important to determine if they can, under certain circumstances, lead to genetic changes in the hereditary material. Numerous experimental studies in vitro and in vivo in different systems, from bacteria to mammals, dealt with the mutagenic and genotoxic effects of hormones. This work presents an overview of the research on genotoxic effects of non?steroidal hormones, although possible changes of genetic material under their influence have not still been known enough, and moreover, investigations on their genotoxic influence have given conflicting results. The study results show that mechanisms of genotoxic effect of nonsteroidal hormones are manifested through the increase of oxidative stress by arising reactive oxygen species. A common mechanism of ROS occurence in thyroid hormones and catecholamines is through metabolic oxidation of their phenolic groups. Manifestation of insulin genotoxic effect is based on production of ROS by activation of NADPH isophorms, while testing oxytocin showed absence of genotoxic effect. Considering that the investigations on genotoxicity of nonsteroidal hormones demonstrated both positive and negative results, the explanation of this discordance involve limitations of test systems themselves, different cell types or biological species used in the experiments, different level of reactivity in vitro and in vivo, as well as possible variations in a tissue-specific expression. Integrated, the provided data contribute to better understanding of genotoxic effect of nonsteroidal hormones and point out to the role and mode of action of these hormones in the process of occurring of effects caused by oxidative stress. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 173034]