• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.570-577
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• 2010

Water gets magnetically charged when it is contacted with a magnet. Although magnetic water products have been promoted since the 1930's, they have received very little recognition due to questionable effectiveness. Diethylnitrosamine (DEN) is a widely occurring nitrosamine that is one of the most important environmental carcinogens primarily inducing tumors of liver. In this study, the effect of magnetized water supplementation on lymphocyte DNA damage in ICR mice treated with DEN was evaluated using the Comet assay. Mice were divided into 3 groups: control, DEN, and DEN + magnetized water group. Fifteen mice were maintained in each group for the entire experimental period of 6, 12 and 18 weeks. Five mice in each group were sacrificed at 6, 12, and 18th weeks, followed by the Comet assay using the blood obtained from heart puncture of the mice. The level of lymphocyte DNA damage reflected by tail moment and other DNA damage indices of tail DNA (%) or tail length of the magnetized water group were significantly decreased after the 6th, 12th and 18th weeks of supplementation compared with the positive control, the DEN group. The relative DNA damage of the magnetized water groups compared to the DEN control group after 6th, 12th, and 18th weeks of supplementation were 42.2%, 40.8%, and 32.9% for DNA in tail, 31.2%, 32.6%, and 21.3% for tail length, and 33.8%, 33.8%, and 24.6% for tail moment, respectively. This is the first report demonstrating that magnetized water may be involved in the lowering effect of the DNA damage in DEN-treated ICR mice. This result suggests that the magnetized water might have minimized the DNA damage by improving the antioxidant status of the mice. However, further studies are needed to characterize the condition of the magnetization and examine the long-term effect of the water product.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.103-108
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• 2015

Curcumin is widely used as a traditional medicine. This work was aimed to investigate its possible protective effect against chemically induced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in rats. Fifty male albino rats were divided into five groups (n=10, each). The control group received a single dose of normal saline, the diethylnitrosamine (DENA) group received a single intra-peritoneal dose at 200mg/kg body weight, and the 3rd, 4th and 5th groups were given DENA and daily administrated curcunine (CUR) via intra-gastric intubation in doses of 300, 200 and 100 mg/kg b.wt. respectively for 20 weeks. Serum, and liver samples were used for determination of alpha feto-protein (AFP), interleukin-2 (IL-2), interleukine-6 (IL-6), serum liver enzymes (AST, ALT, ALP and GGT) levels as well the activities and gene expression of glutathione peroxidise (GPx), glutathione reductase (GR), catalase (CAT) and super oxide dismutase (SOD). Curcumin significantly lowered the serum levels of AFP, IL-2 and IL-6, ALT, ALT, and malondialdehyde (MDA) as well gene expression of IL-2 and IL-6. In contrast it increased the gene expression and activities of Gpx, GRD, CAT and SOD. The protective effect of CUR against DEN-induced hepatocarcinogenesis in albino rats was proven.