Genetic alterations and gene expression profile in male Balb/c mice treated with carbon tetrachloride with or without carboxymethyl chitosan

Abstract

Carboxymethyl chitosan (CMC), which is a water-soluble derivative of chitosan, it has attracted much attention as a new biomedical material. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the chemopreventive effects of CMC against Carbon tetrachloride (CCl 4 )-induced genotoxicity and alterations in gene expression in male Balb/c mice. Materials and Methods: Sixty male Balb/c mice were divided into six groups included the control group; the group treated orally with CCl 4 (0.5 ml/kg b.w) for three doses at 48 h intervals and the groups treated orally with CMC (140 and 280 mg/kg b.w.) alone for three weeks or in combination with CCl 4 . The results indicated that treatment with CCl 4 resulted in increased caspase-3 activities, induction of micronucleus (MnPCEs), frequencies of sister chromatid exchanges (SCE's), total chromosomal aberrations in bone marrow, DNA fragmentation percentage in liver, comet formation in liver and bone marrow, over expression in bax and down expression in Bcl-2. CMC at the two tested doses succeeded to induce a significant improvement in all tested parameters in a dose dependent fashion. Moreover, CMC itself was safe at the tested doses. It could be concluded that CMC is a promise candidate against genotoxicity. (Sekena H. Abdel-Aziem, Aziza M. Hassan, Asmaa S. Salman, Ahmed I.Waly, Mosaad A. Abdel-Wahhab. Genetic alterations and gene expression profile in male Balb/c mice treated with carbon tetrachloride with or without carboxy-methyl chitosan. Journal of American Science 2011;7(6):1065-1076). (ISSN: 1545- 1003). http://www.americanscience.org.