Abstract
The cactus Opuntia ficus-indica is a xerophyte plant. It has multiple functional properties in traditional medicine of several countries and it has an increasing interest of nutritional and pharmacological power. In the present study we chose cactus cladode extract (CCE) to investigate its efficacy against benzo(a)pyrene (BAP) a widespread environmental genotoxin witch induces liver injury and related mechanisms in Balb/C mice. The induction of genotoxicity was monitored by chromosome aberrations in bone marrow cells and DNA fragmentation and determinate cell death pathway using also the expressions of p53, bax and bcl2 proteins level in liver. Our results clearly showed that BAP has a genotoxic effect; it induces DNA damage by chromosomal aberrations observed in bone marrow cells. Moreover, it increases the expression of bcl2 and decreases the expression of bax. The treatment of CCE after or before treatment with BAP showed an anti-genotoxic effect resulted in an efficient prevention of chromosomal aberrations production in bone marrow cells compared to the group treated with BAP alone, CCE was found able to restrict the effect of BAP by differential modulation of the expression of p53 which is increased and its associated genes such as bax and bcl2.
It could be concluded that cactus cladodes extract was effective in the protection against BAP hazards. This could be relevant, particularly with the emergent demand for natural products which may counteract the detrimental effects of genotoxicity and therefore prevent multiple human diseases.