The effects of 4-MEI on cell proliferation, DNA breaking and DNA fragmentation

4-Methylimidazole (4-MEI) is a color widely found in cola drinks, roasted foods, grilled meats, coffee and other foods. This study was aimed to investigate the 4-MEI effects on the cell proliferation, purified circular DNA and DNA from cells of rats treated with the 4-MEI.In this study, mouse 3T3-L1 cell line was treated with 4-MEI at concentrations of 300, 450, 600 and 750 µg/mL for 24 hours and 48 hours periods, after that cytotoxic effect of the 4-MEI was studied by MTT test. Also, the effect of 4-MEI on purified circular DNA (pET22b) was investigated by treating of the DNA with 4-MEI concentrations of 300, 450, 600 and 750 µg/ml. DNA was extracted from liver cells of rats that have been treated with 4-MEI doses of 25 and 50 mg/kg for 10 week and it was subjected to agarose gel electrophoreses analyses.4-MEI significantly inhibited cell proliferation of 3T3-L1 cell line at highest concentration for 24 h and at all concentration for 48 h treatment time. DNA fragmentation assay showed that 4-MEI at 50 mg/kg concentration clearly produced characteristic DNA smear and no DNA laddering (200bp) was observed when mouse was exposed to 4-MEI. The results obtained from plasmid DNA damaging assay showed that 4-MEI has noeffect on the DNA, because the electrophoretic pattern of DNA treated with 4-MEI showed three bands on agarose gel electrophoresis as it was for untreated control. 4-MEI showed cytotoxic effect on 3T3-L1 cells but no effect on plasmid DNA breaking. According to DNA fragmentation assay 4-MEI has necrosis effects on mouse liver cells (Tab. 1, Fig. 4, Ref. 27).