Delineating the anti-cytotoxic and anti-genotoxic potentials of catechin hydrate against cadmium toxicity in human peripheral blood lymphocytes

Catechins (flavan-3-ol) are a type of natural phenol and well-studied antioxidants. Catechin hydrate, also known as taxifolin; is non-mutagenic, low in toxicity compared to other immunomodulator antioxidants. We aimed to determine the potential of catechin hydrate to prevent the cyto-genotoxic effects of cadmium in lymphocytes; demonstrate the immuno-protective activity of catechin hydrate. Our previous study indicated that cadmium is apoptogenic. Lymphocytes were treated with catechin hydrate or cadmium and catechine hydrate combinations (range 0.1-100 mu M) to determine their effects on cell viability. Lymphocytes treated with 100 mu M catechin hydrate and 100 mu M cadmium showed cell viability 70.65 +/- 6.92% and 5.69 +/- 2.27%, respectively. In our previous study cadmium (10 and 20 p,M) induced apoptosis in 31.8% and 44.4% of lymphocytes, respectively. However, the percentage of apoptotic cells after treatment with the combination of cadmium and catechin hydrate was not significantly different from that of catechin hydrate (P > 0.05). Only 7.3% and 10.5% of the lymphocytes were apoptotic after treatment with 10 mu M cadmium + 10 mu M catechin hydrate and 20 mu M cadmium + 20 mu M catechin hydrate, respectively. The anti-genocytotoxic and immuno-protective potential of catechin hydrate was also demonstrated by the non-significant expression of apoptosis-related genes after treatment with catechin hydrate. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.