Influence of alpha-tocopherol and ascorbic acid on pan masala induced genomic damage. An in vitro experiment

Pan masala is a dry complex mixture of areca nut, catechu, lime, cardamon, unspecified flavouring agents etc., with (PMT) or without tobacco (pm). We have previously reported genotoxic potential of tobacco, areca nut and pan masala per se. An antigenotoxic effect of alpha-tocopherol (AT) and ascorbic acid (AA) against the PM/PMT induced genotoxic on Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells have been studied using chromosone aberration (CA) assay. AT and AA, per se, had no effect on CA frequency at the concentrations used in the present study. The short-term treatment of AT with aqueous extracts of PM/PMT yielded lower frequencies of CA as compared to the cultures treated with aqueous extracts of PM/PMT alone. However, a statistically significant reduction in CA frequency was observed with continuous treatment only. AA had no statistically significant protective effect except for continuous treatment with 10 ug/ml AA against the aqueous extract of PMT. The results indicate the possible use of AT to reduce the risk of oral cancer among PM/PMT chewers.