Effects of selenium pretreatment on cisplatin-induced chromosome aberrations in wistar rats

Selenium is an essential trace element and a potent anticancer agent. Extensive laboratory studies demonstrate that selenium is an effective chemopreventive agent in various sites in animals. The administration of selenium as a chemopreventive agent raises the question whether the antioxidant selenium, alone or in combination with other dietary antioxidants, could protect non-tumor cells from the clastogenic effect of cisplatin. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to investigate the modulatory effects of selenium, combined or not with vitamin C, on cisplatin-induced chromosomal aberrations in Wistar rat bone marrow cells. The animals were sacrificed 18, 24, or 72 h after cisplatin injection. The results obtained in Wistar rat bone marrow cells showed a slight nonsignificant reduction in the total number of chromosomal aberrations induced by cisplatin (5 mg/kg b.w.) observed in the animals that received a pretreatment with a single dose of selenium (2 mg/kg b.w.). The administration of two doses of selenium (1 mg/kg b.w.) also did not inhibit the chromosomal damage induced by cisplatin. In the present study, no protective response was obtained with either a single or double dose of selenium in rats treated with cisplatin. Furthermore, the combination between selenium+vitamin C was no more effective than vitamin C alone in the protection against damage caused by this antitumor drug. Further investigations, with other forms of selenium, are necessary to elucidate a possible protective role of selenium in clastogenicity induced by free radicals generated by antitumor drugs.