The antigenotoxic activity of glucosamine (GlcN) and N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) in human peripheral lymphocytes exposed to oxidative stress was investigated. Human lymphocytes were treated with different concentrations of these aminosugars (0, 2.5, 5, 10, 20 and 40 mM) and 25 µM H2O2 simultaneously and evaluated by single cell gel electrophoresis technique (Comet assay). The single cells were analyzed using "TriTek Cometscore version 1.5" software and the data were presented as % DNA in tail. Both GlcN and GlcNAc at examined concentrations (2.5, 5, 10, 20 and 40 mM) did not reveal any genotoxicity compared to the vehicle control (PBS). Glucosamine at all concentrations (2.5, 5, 10, 20 and 40 mM) showed a significant protective activity (% DNA in tail ranging from 16.07 ± 0.85 to 5.47 ± 0.26, p < 0.001) against H2O2 induced DNA damage (% DNA in tail = 38 ± 0.65) while its N-acetylated analog only indicated a slight DNA protection at concentration of 40 mM (% DNA in tail = 33.4 ± 1.17, p < 0.01). We concluded that GlcN at tested concentrations exhibited potent antigenotoxic effect and its protection activity might be related to the presence of 2-NH2 moiety in its chemical backbone.
Keywords: Antigenotoxicity; comet assay; oxidative stress; reactive oxygen species.