title: Effects of selenium pretreatment on cisplatin-induced chromosome aberrations in wistar rats.
abstract: Selenium is an essential trace element and a potent anticancer agent. Extensive laboratory studies demonstrate that selenium is an effective chemopreventive agent in various sites in animals. The administration of selenium as a chemopreventive agent raises the question whether the antioxidant selenium, alone or in combination with other dietary antioxidants, could protect non-tumor cells from the clastogenic effect of cisplatin. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to investigate the modulatory effects of selenium, combined or not with vitamin C, on cisplatin-induced chromosomal aberrations in Wistar rat bone marrow cells. The animals were sacrificed 18, 24, or 72 h after cisplatin injection. The results obtained in Wistar rat bone marrow cells showed a slight nonsignificant reduction in the total number of chromosomal aberrations induced by cisplatin (5 mg/kg b.w.) observed in the animals that received a pretreatment with a single dose of selenium (2 mg/kg b.w.). The administration of two doses of selenium (1 mg/kg b.w.) also did not inhibit the chromosomal damage induced by cisplatin. In the present study, no protective response was obtained with either a single or double dose of selenium in rats treated with cisplatin. Furthermore, the combination between selenium+vitamin C was no more effective than vitamin C alone in the protection against damage caused by this antitumor drug. Further investigations, with other forms of selenium, are necessary to elucidate a possible protective role of selenium in clastogenicity induced by free radicals generated by antitumor drugs.
authors.affiliation: Departamento Análises Clínicas, Toxicológicas e Bromatológicas, Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil. lugreggi@gly.fcfrp.usp.br
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Antunes
authors.forename: H D
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Francescato
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Darin
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: de Lourdes P Bianchi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000633:toxicity*; D000975:Antioxidants / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001205:Ascorbic Acid / Q000494:pharmacology; D001854:Bone Marrow Cells / Q000187:drug effects / Q000648:ultrastructure; D002869:Chromosome Aberrations; D002945:Cisplatin / Q000633:toxicity*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012643:Selenium / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D000975:Antioxidants; D012643:Selenium; D001205:Ascorbic Acid; D002945:Cisplatin