CEREAL GRASS JUICE IN WOUND HEALING: HORMESIS AND CELL-SURVIVAL IN NORMAL FIBROBLASTS, IN CONTRAST TO TOXIC EVENTS IN CANCER CELLS

Natural products and traditional medicines are of great importance. Recent studies have demonstrated, that cereal grass juice improves wound healing, however the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying these processes have not been fully characterized. Also, the full phytochemical characteristics of freshly squeezed juices obtained from cereal grasses is still missing. Thus, in this study a multi-dimensional analysis of juice parameters like refraction value, pH, chlorophyll and flavonoids content as well as antioxidant properties was performed. The results demonstrate that the effect induced by freshly squeezed cereal juices is strictly cell type-dependent. In this study, it is shown for the first time, that in normal fibroblasts (BJ cells) low dose cereal grass juices exhibit strong adaptive response through hormetic mechanism mediated by NF-kappa B/HO-1 and insulin/IGF-1 anti-oxidant pathways. As consequence, the process of wound healing is significantly upregulated. In cancer cells (ES-2 cells), despite anti-oxidant defense mechanism activation, levels of ROS and RNS are elevated. This leads to enhanced O-GlcNAcylation, DNA damage and cell cycle arrest, and as a result impaired wound healing. This study provides insights into the underlying mechanisms through which cereal grass juices activate hormetic adaptation response in normal fibroblasts, and induce cytotoxic and genotoxic events in cancer cells.