Delineating the anti-cytotoxic and anti-genotoxic potentials of catechin hydrate against cadmium toxicity in human peripheral blood lymphocytes

• Cadmium is environmental pollutant that is cytotoxic and genotoxic to human lymphocytes. Toxicity bring about mainly by apoptosis.
• Catechin hydrate exerts anti-genotoxic and anti-cytotoxic effect against cadmium toxicity on human lymphocyte.
• Anti-genotoxic and anti-cytotoxic effect of catechin hydrate was demonstrated by the non-significant expression of apoptosis-related genes after treatment with catechin hydrate.

Catechins (flavan-3-ol) are a type of natural phenol and well-studied antioxidants. Catechin hydrate, also known as taxifolin; is non-mutagenic, low in toxicity compared to other immunomodulator antioxidants. We aimed to determine the potential of catechin hydrate to prevent the cyto-genotoxic effects of cadmium in lymphocytes; demonstrate the immuno-protective activity of catechin hydrate. Our previous study indicated that cadmium is apoptogenic. Lymphocytes were treated with catechin hydrate or cadmium and catechine hydrate combinations (range 0.1–100 μM) to determine their effects on cell viability. Lymphocytes treated with 100 μM catechin hydrate and 100 μM cadmium showed cell viability 70.65 ± 6.92% and 5.69 ± 2.27%, respectively. In our previous study cadmium (10 and 20 μM) induced apoptosis in 31.8% and 44.4% of lymphocytes, respectively. However, the percentage of apoptotic cells after treatment with the combination of cadmium and catechin hydrate was not significantly different from that of catechin hydrate (P > 0.05). Only 7.3% and 10.5% of the lymphocytes were apoptotic after treatment with 10 μM cadmium + 10 μM catechin hydrate and 20 μM cadmium + 20 μM catechin hydrate, respectively. The anti-geno-cytotoxic and immuno-protective potential of catechin hydrate was also demonstrated by the non-significant expression of apoptosis-related genes after treatment with catechin hydrate.