Evaluation of the genotoxic and antigenotoxic effects of exopolysaccharide pullulan in human lymphocytes in vitro

Pullulan is a biocompatible and water-soluble exo-polysaccharide produced by primary strains of the fungus Aureobasidium pullulans. It is frequently used in the pharmaceutical and food industries. In this study, possible cytotoxic effect of pullulan was assessed using the MTT assay in the human breast cancer (MCF-7) cell line. Micronucleus (MN), micronucleus-FISH (MN-FISH), random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD-PCR), and comet assays were used to investigate genotoxic and antigenotoxic effects of pullulan against mitomycin C (MMC) (at MN assay) and hydrogen peroxide (at comet assay) in human lymphocytes. Antigenotoxicity was determined using two different applications: 1 h pretreatment and simultaneous treatment. In the MTT assay, pullulan significantly reduced the cell viability at 15.6−2000 μg/mL compared to the control. No significant alterations in MN rates were found in human lymphocytes treated with different concentrations of pullulan compared to the control. In contrast, co-treatment of pullulan and MMC decreased the frequency of MN in almost all the treatment concentrations and durations compared to the MMC. No significant change was observed in the frequency of the centromere-positive C + or negative C- MNi compared to the positive control. In comet assay, pullulan did not affect comet tail intensity compared to the negative control. On the contrary, pullulan in combination with H 2 O 2 significantly decreased tail intensity at almost all the concentrations compared to the positive control. The changes occurring in RAPD-PCR profiles following pullulan treatments included an increase or decrease in band intensity and gain or loss of bands. These results indicate that exopolysaccharide Pullulan is not genotoxic; moreover, it possesses a protective effect against MMC and H 2 O 2 induced genotoxicity. In breast cancer cells, pullulan induced cytotoxic/anti-proliferative effect.