Stability of dietary polyphenols under the cell culture conditions: avoiding erroneous conclusions

Most data of bioactivity from dietary polyphenols have been derived from in vitro cell culture experiments. In this context, little attention is paid to potential artifacts due to chemical instability of these natural antioxidants. An early degradation time ((C)T10) and half-degradation time ((C)T50) were defined to characterize the stability of 53 natural antioxidants incubated in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (DMEM) at 37 °C. The degree of hydroxylation of flavones and flavonols significantly influenced the stability in order resorcinol-type > catechol-type > pyrogallol-type, with the pyrogallol-type being least stable. In contrast, any glycosylation of polyphenols obviously enhanced their stability. However, the glycosylation was less important compared to the substitution pattern of the nucleus rings. Methoxylation of flavonoids with more than three hydroxyl groups typically improved their stability as did the hydrogenation of the C2═C3 double bond of flavonoids to corresponding flavanoids. There was no significant correlation between the antioxidant potential of polyphenols and their stability. Notably, the polyphenols were clearly more stable in human plasma than in DMEM, which may be caused by polyphenol-protein interactions. It is strongly suggested to carry out stability tests in parallel with cell culture experiments for dietary antioxidants with catechol or pyrogallol structures and pyrogallol-type glycosides in order to avoid artifacts.