Cadmium Induced Toxicity in Human Peripheral Blood Lymphocytes Culture and Its Amelioration by Vitamin C

Introduction: Cadmium is a ubiquitous and toxic environmental pollutant increasing worldwide due to high consumption in various industries. At the cellular level, cadmium affects cell proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis and other cellular activities. In contrast to cadmium, vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is a powerful reducing agent known to capable of rapidly scavenging several reactive oxygen species (ROS).

Aim: Hence, the present work aimed to investigate the cadmium chloride (Low dose-10-6 M; Mid dose-10-5 M; High dose-10-4 M) induced cytotoxic and genotoxic effects in human peripheral blood lymphocyte culture (PBLC) of healthy individuals (n=10) and its amelioration by vitamin C (10-5 M). The study was divided in various groups consisting of control, vitamin C, cadmium alone, cadmium with vitamin C and ethyl methanesulfonate as positive control.

Results: After genotoxicity indices and free radical toxicity parameters evaluated, results showed alteration in free radical toxicity indices and genotoxic indices in cadmium exposed cultures. Although vitamin C co-exposure revealed protective effects against genotoxicity by scavenging free radicals and balancing the activity of antioxidant defense system with decreasing in level of lipid peroxidation.

Conclusion: Vitamin C led to significant decrease in cadmium induced toxicity and substantial amelioration was observed in all studied parameters.