Departamento de Nutrición, Bromatología y Tecnología de los Alimentos, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, E-28040 Madrid, Spain.
J Sci Food Agric. 2013 Sep;93(12):2995-3000. doi: 10.1002/jsfa.6129. Epub 2013 Apr 25.
Honey contains a variety of polyphenols and represents a good source of antioxidants, while the human diet often contains compounds that can cause DNA damage. The present study investigated the protective effect of three commercial honey samples of different floral origin (rosemary, heather and heterofloral) from Madrid Autonomic Community (Spain) as well as an artificial honey on DNA damage induced by dietary mutagens, using a human hepatoma cell line (HepG2) as in vitro model system and evaluation by the alkaline single-cell gel electrophoresis or comet assay.
Rosemary, heather and heterofloral honeys protected against DNA strand breaks induced by N-nitrosopyrrolidine (NPYR), benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) and 2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo[4,5-b]pyridine (PhIP), but none of the honey samples tested prevented DNA strand breaks induced by N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA). Heterofloral and heather (unifloral) honeys with higher phenolic content were most effective in protecting HepG2 cells against DNA damage induced by food mutagens. Heterofloral honey was more protective against NPYR and BaP, while heather honey was more protective against PhIP. Artificial honey did not show a protective effect against DNA damage induced by any of the food mutagens tested, indicating that the protective effects of honeys could not be due to their sugar components.
The results suggest that the protective effect of three kinds of Spanish honey of different floral origin could be attributed in part to the phenolics present in the samples. Honeys with higher phenolic content, i.e. heather and heterofloral honeys, were most effective in protecting against food mutagen-induced DNA damage in HepG2 cells. In addition, a possible synergistic effect between other minor honey components could also be involved.
蜂蜜含有多种多酚，是抗氧化剂的良好来源，而人类饮食中通常含有会造成 DNA 损伤的化合物。本研究使用人肝癌细胞系（HepG2）作为体外模型系统，通过碱性单细胞凝胶电泳或彗星试验评估，调查了三种不同来源（迷迭香、石南花和杂花）的马德里自治区（西班牙）商业蜂蜜以及人工蜂蜜对膳食诱变剂诱导的 DNA 损伤的保护作用。
迷迭香、石南花和杂花蜂蜜均可预防 N-亚硝基吡咯烷（NPYR）、苯并（a）芘（BaP）和 2-氨基-1-甲基-6-苯基咪唑[4,5-b]吡啶（PhIP）诱导的 DNA 链断裂，但没有一种测试的蜂蜜样品能预防 N-亚硝基二甲胺（NDMA）诱导的 DNA 链断裂。酚类含量较高的杂花和石南花蜂蜜对 HepG2 细胞对抗食物诱变剂诱导的 DNA 损伤最有效。杂花蜂蜜对 NPYR 和 BaP 的保护作用更强，而石南花蜂蜜对 PhIP 的保护作用更强。人工蜂蜜对任何测试的食物诱变剂诱导的 DNA 损伤均无保护作用，表明蜂蜜的保护作用不能归因于其糖成分。
研究结果表明，三种不同来源的西班牙蜂蜜的保护作用部分归因于样品中存在的酚类物质。酚类含量较高的蜂蜜，即石南花和杂花蜂蜜，对 HepG2 细胞中食物诱变剂诱导的 DNA 损伤的保护作用最强。此外，其他次要蜂蜜成分之间可能存在协同作用。
