Evaluation of beta-carotene microencapsulated antimutagenic activity in cells of rats treated with antitumor doxorubicin using micronucleus test and comet assay / Avaliação da atividade antimutagênica do beta-caroteno microencapsulado em células de ratos tratados com o antitumoral doxorrubicina empregando os ensaios de micronúcleo e cometa

Alexandre Ferro Aissa

Colorants are commonly used in the food industry. From natural or synthetic origin, these colorants are used in food production in order to recompense the loss of color during manufacturing and stowage processes, guarantee color uniformity and also attribute color to those colorless ones. Among natural pigments, beta-carotene (BC) has been one of the most added to food. On the other hand, the utilization of BC is limited due to its instability. On that account, microencapsulation techniques are more used, once they can protect the microencapsulated material from oxidizing actions, extending the composition property. Nevertheless, in these technological processes, the properties of the encapsulated compound must be studied carefully. The aim of this work was to compare the possible antimutagenic action of pure and microencapsulated BC (BCM) through micronucleus test in cells of bone marrow and peripheral blood, and through comet assay in kidneys and livers of rats treated with the antitumoral doxorubicin (DXR). For this, the treatment was made of two doses of pure and microencapsulated carotenoid (2.5 or 5 mg/kg), by gavage during 14 days, followed by saline intraperitoneal injection or antitumor DXR (16 mg/kg), right after the last gavage. Male Wistar rats were divided in 14 treatment groups (n=6/group), and were sacrificed 24 hours after the intraperitoneal injection. The micronucleus test results in both tissues show that BC was not mutagenic, except for the 5mg/kg dose. In BCM the doses were not mutagenic and in the association of BCM+DXR, only the higher dose was antimutagenic. The results of the comet assay in kidney and liver show that BC was not genotoxic and when associated to DXR it obtained protection values similar to the results obtained with the solvent control (corn oil). BCM was also not genotoxic in none of the tissues. Once associated to DXR, the two doses had protector effect against the DNA fragmentation in the liver. In the kidney, the BCM 2.5mg+DXR dose was genotoxic and the BCM 5mg+DXR dose was antigenotoxic. The observed antimutagenicity can be explained by the beta-carotene antioxidant action. However, when a higher dose is used, the carotenoid cleavage products can increase the formation of reactive oxygen species inducing the formation of micronucleus. The difference between the results obtained with the two doses, BC and BCM, indicates that, perhaps, the carotenoid biodisponibility was modified by the process of microencapsulation. Nevertheless, the protector effect observed in one of the BCM doses can be explained by the beta-carotene antioxidant capacity, even in the microencapsulated form. In conclusion, the pure BC should not be used in high dose, because it increases damage to DNA and while microencapsulated it does not lose its properties, but one higher dose must be used for the carotenoid to have antimutagenic effect.

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