In vitro Evaluation of Antigenotoxic Effects of Phloridzin

Phytochemicals have a vast number of properties contributing to human health by acting on numerous different mechanisms. Phloridzin, a phytochemical mainly found in Malus species, possesses diverse biological activities including anti-diabetic and antioxidative activities. Here, our aim is to explore antigenotoxic potential and proliferative effects of phloridzin on human lymphocytes in vitro by employing chromosome aberration, micronucleus and comet assays. Mitomycin C, both an anticancer and genotoxic agent, was utilized to induce genotoxicity. Phloridzin significantly suppressed the genotoxic effects of mitomycin C at 125-500 µg/mL concentrations in all assays used (p < 0.05). We also revealed that phloridzin and mitomycin C combination had a significantly negative effect on mitotic index (p < 0.05), whereas in general, gender differences did not play a role in manifestation of neither antigenotoxic nor antiproliferative activities of the combination.These results suggest that phloridzin is an antigenotoxic compound and its consumption may interfere with the activity of anticancer drugs that exert their effects based on genotoxic mechanisms.