Genomic instability induced by  -pinene in Chinese hamster cell line

Abstract

Here, we report the effects of exposure of mammalian cells to α-pinene, a bicyclic monoterpene used in insecticides, solvents and perfumes. Morphological analysis, performed in V79-Cl3 cells exposed for 1 h to increasing concentrations (25 up to 50 μM) of α-pinene, indicated a statistically significant increase in micronucleated and multinucleated cell frequencies; apoptotic cells were seen at 40 and 50 μM. This monoterpene caused genomic instability by interfering with mitotic process; in fact, 50% of cells (versus 19% of control cells) showed irregular mitosis with multipolar or incorrectly localised spindles. Cytogenetic analysis demonstrated high-frequency hypodiploid metaphases as well as endoreduplicated cells and chromosome breaks. Clastogenic damage was prevalent over aneuploidogenic damage as demonstrated by the higher proportion of kinetochore-negative micronuclei. Alkaline comet confirmed that monoterpene exposure caused DNA lesions in a concentration-dependent manner. This damage probably arose by increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. In order to assess the generation of ROS, the cells were incubated with CM-H(2)DCFDA and then analysed by flow cytometry. Results demonstrated an increase in fluorescence intensity after α-pinene treatment indicating increased oxidative stress. On the whole, these findings strongly suggest that α-pinene is able to compromise genome stability preferentially through mitotic alterations and to damage DNA through ROS production.

Inhibitory Effects of α-Pinene on Hepatoma Carcinoma Cell Proliferation

“…Most importantly, α-pinene was very effective in the treatment of experimental metastatic melanoma, reducing the number of lung tumor nodules. These findings indicate that α-pinene may inhibit cell proliferation by inducing cell apoptosis (Catanzaro et al, 2012). However, results from the present study showed that α-pinene did not induce BEL-7402 cell apoptosis.…”

Essential oils rich in monoterpenes are unsuitable as additives to boar semen extender

“…Several biological activities were attributed to terpinolene, such as anticancer (Harada et al, 2012), antioxidant (Dorman, Figueiredo, Barroso, & Deans, 2000), antifungal (Hammer, Carson, & Riley, 2004) and larvicidal (Conti et al, 2012) activities. to the V79-Cl3 cell culture, suggesting that this compound is able to compromise genome stability preferentially through mitotic alterations and damage DNA through ROS production (Catanzaro et al, 2012). The presence of α-pinene, although in lower concentrations among the major compounds of the EO from M. atropurpureum, could explain the reduced motility and sperm membrane functionality due to oxidative damage of sperm membrane and mitochondria.…”

Dietary mastic oil extracted from Pistacia lentiscus var. chia suppresses tumor growth in experimental colon cancer models

“…Noteworthy, MO or mastic water extract were previously shown to lack genotoxic or mutagenic activities 43, 44 . Many studies also demonstrated lack of genotoxicity for β-myrcene or α-pinene in in vitro and in vivo systems 45–48 however, in one study α-pinene was shown to compromise genomic instability 49 . Notably, various monoterpenes such as limonene and perillic acid have been reported to possess antitumor activity 10 .…”