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MSM

Health News Archive 182 - DNA
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Carotenoid Supplements Reduce DNA Damage

The results of a double-blind study published in the January 2006 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition revealed that postmenopausal women given mixed carotenoids or single carotenoids had less damage to their DNA than those administered a placebo over an eight week period.

Researchers at Tufts University in Boston randomized 37 women aged 50 to 70 to receive a supplement containing a daily dose of 4 milligrams beta-carotene, 4 milligrams lutein and 4 milligrams lycopene; 12 milligrams of beta-carotene, lutein, or lycopene alone; or a placebo for 56 days. Participants were instructed to limit carotenoid-rich fruit and vegetables from two weeks prior to the study until its conclusion. Endogenous and hydrogen-peroxide challenged DNA damage to lymphocytes (a white blood cell) were evaluated from blood samples taken before the subjects began the supplement regimen, and on days 15, 29 43 and 57.

By the fifteenth day of the study, there was significantly less endogenous DNA damage among women who received mixed carotenoids or beta-carotene alone compared to that measured at the beginning of the study. By the study's conclusion all groups who received carotenoid supplements showed less hydrogen-peroxide induced DNA damage, and significantly less endogenous DNA damage compared to presupplementation levels. The authors remarked that the loss of interactions with other antioxidants when DNA damage is measured outside of the body could explain the weaker protective effects for the carotenoids against hydrogen-peroxide induced DNA damage they observed.

At the study's conclusion, all groups had less endogenous DNA damage than the placebo group, and only the group who received lycopene was found to have more hydrogen-peroxide induced damage than the placebo group. However, the lycopene group had less endogenous DNA damage measured at the end of the study than any other group.

Source: Xianfeng Zhao, Giancarlo Aldini, Elizabeth J Johnson, Helen Rasmussen, Klaus Kraemer, Herb Woolf, Nina Musaeus, Norman I Krinsky, Robert M Russell, and Kyung-Jin Yeum. Modification of lymphocyte DNA damage by carotenoid supplementation in postmenopausal women. Am J Clin Nutr 2006 83: 163-169.