Targets of Red Grapes: Oxidative Damage of DNA and Leukaemia Cells

Abstract

Vitis vinifera is a widespread crop all over the world. The biophenols present in grapes have a remarkable influence on wine quality and also confer potential health-protecting properties to this fruit. The aim of the present work was to assess the beneficial properties of skin, seeds and pulp of red table grapes (RTG) (Vitis vinifera, Palieri Cadiz variety). Two potential beneficial activities of red table grapes (RTG) were analyzed: (i) The maintenance of genomic stability studying their genotoxic/antigenotoxic effects, and (ii) the in vitro cytotoxic effect against tumor cells of RTG components.

The genotoxic and/or antigenotoxic effect was measured applying the somatic mutation and recombination test on wing imaginal discs of Drosophila melanogaster. The cytotoxic effect was monitored using the HL60 human leukemia model to evaluate the antiproliferative potential of the different parts of RTG. The three major parts (skin, seeds and pulp) are not genotoxic. When antigenotoxicity assays were performed using hydrogen peroxide as the oxidative genotoxin, skin, seed and pulp exerted a desmutagenic effect, with seeds and skin showing the most potent effect. The cytotoxicity tests using HL60 cells indicated that only skin and pulp fractions are able to inhibit the tumor growth, with skin having the lowest IC₅₀ (1.8 mg/mL versus 8 mg/mL of pulp). These results suggest that RTG are potent anti-mutagens that protect DNA from oxidative damage as well as being cytotoxic toward the HL60 tumor cell line.