Antimutagenic effects of red apple and watermelon juices on cyclophosphamide-induced genotoxicity in mice

Abstract

Studies on agents that modulate carcinogen-induced genotoxicity in experimental animals provide end points that can be used to assess the anti-mutagenic properties of putative chemopreventive compounds. Red apple and watermelon juices were assessed for modulation of cyclophosphamide (CP)-induced proportion of polychromatic erythrocyte (PCE) and frequency of micronucleated polychromatic erythrocytes (MNPCE) in mice. Three groups of five mice each were given 100, 50 or 25% concentration of fruit juice ad libitum for 7 days; intraperitoneally (ip) injected with 40 mg/kg CP and sacrificed 24 h later for preparation of bone marrow smears and analysis. Control group animals drank water before injection with CP (positive) or distilled water (negative). Each group mean of the proportion of PCE and frequency of MNPCE was compared with the group mean of the concurrent negative and positive control using the Mann-Whitney U test. No difference in the proportion of PCE was found between any group and the negative control (P<0.05) which suggested that CP treatment alone or after pre-treatment did not induce erythropoietic cell toxicity. Pre-treatment with 100% apple or 25% watermelon juice reduced the frequency of CP-induced MNPCE (P< 0.05), while pre-treatment with 100% watermelon juice increased the frequency of CP-induced MNPCE.

Key words: Genotoxicity, cyclophosphamide, micronuclei, apple, watermelon.