Green vegetable drink consumption protects peripheral lymphocytes DNA damage in Korean smokers

Issue title: The Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Food Factors (ICoFF 03)

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Kang, Myung-Hee | Park, Yoo Kyoung | Kim, Hye-Young | Kim, Tae Seok

Affiliations: Department of Food and Nutrition, Hannam University, 133 Ojeong-dong, Daedeok-gu, Daejeon, Korea | Department of Medical Nutrition, Kyunghee University, 1 Hoekidong, Dongdaemoonku, Seoul 130-701, South Korea | R&D, Pulmuone Co., Ltd, Seoul, 120-600, Korea

Note: [] Corresponding author. Tel: +82 42 629 7491; E-mail: mhkang@hannam.ac.kr

Abstract: Smoking increases indices of free radical-mediated damage of DNA which are potential underlying processes in the pathogenesis of many diseases. In this study, we evaluated whether 8 weeks of green vegetable drink (Angelica keiskei based juice) supplementation to smokers can be protective against lymphocytic DNA damage. Twenty smokers were given 240 ml of commercially available green vegetable drink every day for 8 weeks. The DNA damage was determined using single cell gel electrophoresis (COMET assay) and the damage was quantified by measuring tail length (TL), tail moment (TM), and percent DNA in tail. Eight weeks of green vegetable drink consumption resulted in a significant in lymphocytes DNA damage in all three measurements; TL, TM and % DNA in tail. These results support the hypothesis that green vegetable drink exerts a cancer-protective effect via a decrease in oxidative damage to DNA in humans.

Keywords: smokers, green juice, intervention, DNA damage, comet assay

Journal: BioFactors, vol. 22, no. 1-4, pp. 245-247, 2004