Antioxidant and antimutagenic properties of calcium sennosides in γ-Irradiated human blood cultures

Background: calcium sennosides are the main active metabolites of sennas,which have a powerful interest to phytochemical and pharmacologicalresearch, due to their brilliant medicinal values. it is well known in folkmedicine for their laxative and purgative uses. materials and methods: thisexperiment aimed to assess cytogenetic (micronucleus assay and chromosomalaberration study) and biochemical effects of calcium sennosides at a working dose(24 or 48 mg/ml) on suppressing radiation hazards in human blood cultures.biochemical investigations include superoxide dismutase (sod), catalase (cat),tumor necrosis factor-α (tnf-α), interleukin-8 (il-8), cyclooxygenase-2 (cox-2) andlactate dehydrogenase (ldh) levels. the treatment periods were 48 and 72 hrs post-irradiation at a dose of 3 gy. triple blood cultures for each blood sample were setup. results: ionizing radiation exposure induced significant increase inmicronuclei (mn) frequencies in both mono- and bi- nucleated cells, and alltypes of chromosome aberrations, beside significant decrease in sod and catactivities. while tnf-α, il-8, cox-2 and ldh levels were significantly increasedafter irradiation. treatment with calcium sennosides exhibited decreased ofmicronuclei and chromosome aberration numbers and enhancement in thelevel of sod and cat activities. in addition, a significant amelioration in il-8,tnf-α, cox-2 levels and ldh activity were scored. conclusion: present resultsrevealed the antimutagenic and the anti-inflammatory effects of sennosides againstoxidative stress induced by γ- irradiation.