title: Role of metabolism by intestinal bacteria in arbutin-induced toxicity in vitro.
abstract: A possible role of metabolism by intestinal bacteria in arbutin-induced toxicity was investigated in mammalian cell cultures. Following an incubation of arbutin with intestinal bacteria, either Bifidobacterium longum HY81 or Bifidobacterium adolescentis, for 24 h, its aglycone hydroquinone could be produced and detected in the bacterial culture media. The bacterial growth was not affected up to 10 mM arbutin in the culture medium. When the toxicity of bacteria cultured medium with arbutin was tested in the HepG2 cell lines, the medium with arbutin was more toxic than either parent arbutin only or bacteria cultured medium without arbutin, indicating that metabolic activation might be required in arbutin-induced toxicity. In addition, bacteria cultured medium with arbutin could suppress LPS and ConA mitogenicity in splenocyte cultures prepared from normal mice. The results indicate that the present toxicity testing system might be applied for assessing the possible role of metabolism by intestinal bacteria in certain chemical-induced toxicity in mammalian cell cultures.
authors.affiliation: College of Pharmacy, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, 712-749, Korea.
authors.forename: Mi Jeong
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Hyun Woo
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Ha
authors.forename: Hyung Gyun
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Dae Hun
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Min Jeong
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Kong
authors.forename: Young Tae
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Ahn
authors.forename: Dong Hyun
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Beom Soo
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Wonku
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Hye Gwang
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Jeong
authors.forename: Tae Cheon
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Jeong
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001104:Arbutin / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000633:toxicity*; D001431:Bacteriological Techniques; D001644:Bifidobacterium / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D003470:Culture Media; D005260:Female; D056945:Hep G2 Cells; D006801:Humans; D007413:Intestinal Mucosa / Q000378:metabolism; D007422:Intestines / Q000382:microbiology*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D013154:Spleen / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D018675:Toxicity Tests / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media; D001104:Arbutin