Protective Effect of Borage Seed Oil and Gamma Linolenic Acid on DNA: In Vivo and In Vitro Studies

Abstract

Borage (Borago officinalis L.) seed oil has been used as a treatment for various degenerative diseases. Many useful properties of this oil are attributed to its high gamma linolenic acid content (GLA, 18:3 ω-6). The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the safety and suitability of the use of borage seed oil, along with one of its active components, GLA, with respect to DNA integrity, and to establish possible in vivo toxic and in vitro cytotoxic effects. In order to measure these properties, five types of assays were carried out: toxicity, genotoxicity, antigenotoxicity, cytotoxicity (using the promyelocytic leukaemia HL60 cell line), and life span (in vivo analysis using the Drosophila model). Results showed that i) Borage seed oil is not toxic to D. melanogaster at physiological concentrations below 125 µl/ml and the studies on GLA indicated non-toxicity at the lowest concentration analyzed ii) Borage seed oil and GLA are DNA safe (non-genotoxic) and antimutagenic compared to hydrogen peroxide, thereby confirming its antioxidant capacity; iii) Borage seed oil and GLA exhibited cytotoxic activity in low doses (IC50 of 1 µl/ml and 0.087 mM, respectively) iv) Low doses of borage seed oil (0.19%) increased the health span of D. melanogaster; and v) GLA significantly decreased the life span of D. melanogaster.Based on the antimutagenic and cytotoxic effects along with the ability to increase the health span, we propose supplementation with borage seed oil rather than GLA, because it protects DNA by modulating oxidative genetic damage in D. melanogaster, increases the health span and exerts cytotoxic activity towards promyelocytic HL60 cells.

Fatty acid lithium salts from Cunninghamella echinulata have cytotoxic and genotoxic effects on HL‐60 human leukemia cells

“…Simultaneous treatment of cells with both H 2 O 2 and FALS showed a synergistic effect of these compounds, since their combined application resulted in elevated toxicity in comparison with both control and H 2 O 2 ‐treated cultures. Similar synergistic toxic effect was reported for H 2 O 2 used together with GLA in the D. melanogaster Smart Test .…”

“…On the contrary, at 20 μg/mL FALS enhanced the ability of H 2 O 2 to provoke DNA fragmentation. In previous reports, GLA was found to be antigenotoxic, reducing the genotoxic effects of H 2 O 2 (tested at concentrations up to 90 mM) on the D. melanogaster Smart Test, while GLA itself was not genotoxic . In addition, GLA, among other PUFAs, showed a protective activity against oxidative stress induced by arsenite in rat models and against micronucleation induced by benzo(a)pyrene on bone marrow cells of mice .…”

“…In the present investigation, significant cytotoxic effects of Cunnighamella ‐derived FALS on HL‐60 cells were observed, which were linearly related to the FALS concentration. Likewise, it has been reported that Borage seed oil and pure GLA exerted a cytotoxic activity in the same cell system which was dose‐dependent . Additionally, pure GLA used in Drosophila melanogaster Smart Test exerted a strong concentration‐dependent cytotoxicity at high concentrations, although at low concentrations no cytotoxic effect was observed.…”

Anti/genotoxic, longevity inductive, cytotoxic, and clastogenic‐related bioactivities of tomato and lycopene

“…This minor and apparent discrepancy could be due to the different genetic background and method used in the trials (Dai et al group used 30 days aged Drosophila while we treated Drosophila during the whole life of the flies). Furthermore, dietary supplementation does not necessarily always result in an increased lifespan [Soh et al, ; Tasset‐Cuevas et al, ]; in general, when high doses of many substances (even some of them are healthy at low doses) are given to Drosophila a negative dose‐effect is observed [Fernández‐Bedmar and Alonso‐Moraga, ], that suggests a nontoxic threshold from which tomato and lycopene exert slight toxic effect.…”

Role of Zucchini and Its Distinctive Components in the Modulation of Degenerative Processes: Genotoxicity, Antigenotoxicity, Cytotoxicity and Apoptotic Effects

“…Studies of genotoxicity/antigenotoxicity and cytotoxicity are rapid methods to assess the innocuousness and possible beneficial effects of single compounds or complex mixtures and foods [15][16][17]. The Somatic Mutation and Recombination Test (SMART) of Drosophila melanogaster is a suitable eukaryotic tool for genotoxicity and antigenotoxicity studies [18] and is a one-generation test based on the loss of heterozygosity of two suitable recessive markers (mwh and flr), due to different genotoxic events (i.e.…”