evaluation of the protective effect of brassica oleracea (l. var. acephala) in rats with surgically-induced gastroesophageal reflux disease

Background: gastroesophageal reflux disease (gerd) is acommondisorder thatmayresult in esophageal cancer. although proton pump inhibitors are the standard treatment for this illness, brassica oleracea may provide new therapeutic possibilities. objectives: we aimed to evaluate and compare the effects of the b. oleracea extract and the proton pump inhibitor omeprazole on esophageal complications arising from a surgically-induced gerd model in rats. in addition, we investigated possible associations between the frequency of dna damage and esophageal histological alterations, as well as the genotoxic/anti-genotoxic and cytotoxic/anti-cytotoxic effects of b. oleracea and omeprazole. methods: rats with and without gerd were equally divided into groups to receive one of two the treatments, b. oleracea extract (500 mg/kg bw) or omeprazole (30 mg/kg bw), daily over the course of four weeks. a group of non-treated rats received water in the same circumstances. micronucleus assay was used to assess dna damage in blood and bone marrow cells. results: rats with gerd developed esophagitis and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. b. oleracea and omeprazole-treated gerd rats presented significantly decreased inflammation in relation to non-treated gerd rats (p < 0.05). however, in rats without gerd, omeprazole significantly increased the frequencies of micronuclei and micronucleated cells as compared to the corresponding cell counts in non-treated rats (p = 0.04). conclusions: b. oleracea demonstrated similar anti-inflammatory properties to omeprazole in rats with gerd. however, omeprazole also demonstrated genotoxic and cytotoxic effects in rats without gerd.