β-glucan is a well-known polysaccharide for its chemopreventive effect. This study aimed to evaluate the chemopreventive ability of β-glucan in somatic and germ cells through the dominant lethal and micronucleus assays, and its influence on the reproductive performance of male mice exposed to cyclophosphamide. The results indicate that β-glucan is capable of preventing changes in DNA in both germ cells and somatic ones. Changes in germ cells were evaluated by the dominant lethal assay and showed damage reduction percentages of 46.46% and 43.79% for the doses of 100 and 150 mg/kg. For the somatic changes, evaluated by micronucleus assay in peripheral blood cells in the first week of treatment, damage reduction percentages from 80.63-116.32% were found. In the fifth and sixth weeks, the percentage ranged from 10.20-52.54% and -0.95-62.35%, respectively. Besides the chemopreventive efficiency it appears that the β-glucan, when combined with cyclophosphamide, is able to improve the reproductive performance of males verified by the significant reduction in rates of post-implantation losses and reabsorption in the mating of nulliparous females with males treated with cyclophosphamide.

Ample evidence suggests that cancer is triggered by mutagenic damage and diets or supplements capable of reducing such incidences can be related to the prevention of neoplasy development or to an improvement in life quality of patients who undergo chemotherapy. This research aimed to evaluate the antimutagenic and antigenotoxic activity of β-glucan. We set up 8 experimental groups: control (Group 1), cyclophosphamide (Group 2), Groups 3-5 to assess the effect of β-glucan administration, and Groups 6-8 to evaluate the association between cyclophosphamide and β-glucan. The intraperitonial concentrations of β-glucan used were 100, 150 and 200 mg/kg. Micronucleus and comet assays showed that within the first week of treatment β-glucan presented a damage reduction rate between 100-62.04% and 94.34-59.52% for mutagenic and genotoxic damages, respectively. This activity decreased as the treatment was extended. During the sixth week of treatment antimutagenicity rates were reduced to 59.51-39.83% and antigenotoxicity was not effective. This leads to the conclusion that the efficacy of β-glucan in preventing DNA damage is limited when treatment is extended, and that its use as a chemotherapeutic adjuvant need to be better clarified.

A presente pesquisa teve por objetivo avaliar a capacidade quimiopreventiva da fenilalanina. Utilizou-se um lote de fêmeas prenhes e não prenhes divididas nos seguintes grupos experimentais: G1, PBS (0,1 mL/kg p.c.); G2, ciclofosfamida (35 mg/kg p.c.-i.p.); G3, fenilalanina (150 mg/kg p.c.-v.o.) e G4, fenilalanina (300 mg/kg p.c.-v.o.) e G5 (150 mg/kg p.c. de fenilalanina e 35 mg/kg de ciclofosfamida); G6, (300 mg/kg p.c. de fenilalanina e 35 mg/kg de ciclofosfamida). As coletas de sangue periférico foram realizadas em T0, antes da administração de qualquer substância teste e/ou veículos, e igualmente em T24 e T48, onde as coletas foram realizadas respectivamente 24 e 48 h após a administração da ciclofosfamida. Em uma análise geral verificou-se que, para o grupo de fêmeas não prenhes, a avaliação da antimutagenicidade demonstrou porcentagens de redução de danos de 57,24% e 31,64% para G5 e G6, respectivamente, em T24, e 29,32% e 24,13% para G5 e G6, respectivamente, em T48. Nos animais prenhes a antimutagenicidade de 24 h demonstrou eficiência quimiopreventiva apenas para a menor dose (G5) e as porcentagens de redução de danos foram de 43,25% em G5 e 18,47% em G6. No momento T48 as porcentagens de redução de danos foram de 44,67% e 37,76% para G5 e G6, respectivamente.

This study aimed to evaluate the quimiopreventive ability of phenylalanine. We used pregnant and non-pregnant female mice divided into the following groups: G1-PBS, (0.1 mL/kg b.w); G2, cyclophosphamide (35 mg/kg p.c.-i.p.); G3 and G4, phenylalanine (150 and 300 mg/kg b.w respectively-v.o.) and G5 and G6, association between the two doses of phenylalanine and cyclophosphamide, respectively. The peripheral blood samples were taken at T0, before the administration of any drug test and / or vehicles, also at T24 and T48 where the collections were made 24 and 48 h after administration of cyclophosphamide, respectively. A general analysis has found that, for the group of non-pregnant female, the antimutagenic evaluation showed reduction percentages of damage of 57.24% and 31.64% for G5 and G6, respectively, at T24, and 29.32% and 24.13% for G5 and G6, respectively, at T48. Antimutagenic pregnant animals in the 24 h quimiopreventive efficiency shown only for the lower dose (G5) and the percentages of reduction were 43.25% in G5 and G6 at 18.47%. At T48 the harm-reduction percentages were 44.67% and 37.76% for G5 and G6, respectively.