β-glucan inhibits the genotoxicity of cyclophosphamide, adriamycin and cisplatin

The inhibitory effects of beta-glucan (betaG), one of the biological response modifiers, on the induction of chromosomal aberrations in the bone marrow and spermatogonial cells of mice treated with various anti-neoplastic drugs were investigated. beta-Glucan (100mg/kg bw, i.p.) pre-treatment reduced the total number of cells with structural chromosomal aberrations scored after the treatment with cyclophosphamide (CP) (2.5 mg/kg bw, i.p.) adriamycin (ADR) (12 mg/kg bw, i.p.) and cis-diamminedichloroplatinum-II (cisplatin) (5 mg/kg bw, i.p.) by about 41.1, 26.9 and 57.7% in bone marrow and 44.4, 55 and 57.1 % in spermatogonial cells, respectively. This protective effect of p-glucan could be attributed to its scavenging ability to trap free-radicals produced during the biotransformation of these anti-neoplastic drugs. beta-Glucan also markedly restored the mitotic activity of bone marrow cells that had been suppressed by the anti-neoplastic drugs. These results indicate that in addition to the known immunopotentiating activity of p-glucan, it plays a role in reducing genotoxicity induced by anti-neoplastic drugs during cancer chemotherapy. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier B.V.