Mutagenesis vol. 19 no. 4 pp. 325-330,
July 2004
© 2004 UK Environmental Mutagen Society/Oxford University Press
Antioxidants modulate thyroid hormone- and noradrenaline-induced DNA damage in human sperm
gorzata M. Dobrzy
ska1,21Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford, UK and 2Department of Radiation Protection and Radiobiology, National Institute of Hygiene, Warsaw, Poland
The genotoxic effects of steroidal oestrogens are probably brought about by metabolic changes in their phenolic groups accompanied by the generation of quinones and reactive oxygen species. Although non-steroidal oestrogens and related compounds have not been thoroughly investigated for genotoxicity, some of them also contain phenolic groups that could be involved in redox cycling. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the possible DNA-damaging effects of the thyroid hormones triiodothyronine (T3) and L-thyroxine sodium salt (T4) and the neurotransmitter noradrenaline (NA) in human sperm using the Comet assay. They were compared with diethylstilboestrol (DES), a steroidal oestrogen, as a positive control. After doseresponse studies, doses of 80 µM T3, 80 µM T4, 300 µM NA and 175 µM DES, which produced DNA damage but retained good cell viability, were chosen for further experiments with the antioxidant catalase and the flavonoids kaempferol and quercetin. Since the scavenging enzyme catalase reduced the DNA-damaging effects of T3, T4 and NA, it can be surmised that these compounds under these conditions induced DNA damage mainly via the production of reactive oxygen species. This was further confirmed by the inhibitory responses produced by the flavonoids, which are known to have antioxidant effects. Therefore, the mechanism of mutagenic action of both steroidal and non-steroidal compounds imply the creation of oxidative stress and subsequent DNA damage due to reactive oxygen species and possibly due to reactive hormone derivatives created during their redox cycling.
3To whom correspondence should be addressed at: Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford BD7 1DP, UK. Email: d.anderson1{at}bradford.ac.uk
Received on March 22, 2004; revised on May 17, 2004; accepted on May 24, 2004
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