Saikia J R, Schneeweiss F H, Sharan R N
Department of Biochemistry, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong, India.
Cancer Lett. 1999 May 3;139(1):59-65. doi: 10.1016/s0304-3835(99)00008-7.
Arecoline, the major alkaloid of betel nut (Areca catechu L.) and a suspected carcinogen, has been implicated in human cancers of various sites. A considerable portion of the world's population is constantly exposed to arecoline due to the habit of masticating betel nuts. The present work relates to the study of early molecular events following chronic arecoline exposure at a dose of 10 microg/ml to Swiss albino mice. Poly-ADP-ribosylation of all cellular proteins, histones and poly-ADP-ribose polymerase were studied in bone marrow and spleen cells and correlated with the organizational status of the chromatin. While most proteins showed lowering of their poly-ADP-ribosylation following arecoline treatment, only histone protein H1 in spleen cells and H2B in bone marrow cells exhibited an increase. The chromatin of both the tissues was progressively relaxed upon arecoline exposure. The implications of these changes have been discussed regarding the process of initiation of arecoline-induced carcinogenesis.
槟榔碱是槟榔（Areca catechu L.）的主要生物碱，也是一种疑似致癌物，与人体多个部位的癌症有关。由于咀嚼槟榔的习惯，世界上相当一部分人口经常接触槟榔碱。目前的工作涉及对瑞士白化小鼠以10微克/毫升的剂量长期接触槟榔碱后早期分子事件的研究。研究了骨髓和脾细胞中所有细胞蛋白质、组蛋白和聚ADP-核糖聚合酶的多聚ADP-核糖基化，并将其与染色质的组织状态相关联。虽然大多数蛋白质在槟榔碱处理后其多聚ADP-核糖基化降低，但只有脾细胞中的组蛋白H1和骨髓细胞中的H2B表现出增加。槟榔碱暴露后，两个组织的染色质逐渐松弛。已就槟榔碱诱导致癌作用的起始过程讨论了这些变化的意义。
