Vitamins as antimutagens: advantages and some possible mechanisms of antimutagenic action

Dietary natural inhibitors of mutagenesis and carcinogenesis are of particular importance because they may be useful for human cancer prevention and do not have undesirable xenobiotic effects on living organisms. As was shown in numerous experiments, many endogenous substances, usually obtained in food or synthesized by cells, possess some inhibitory activity towards natural or man-made environmental mutagens which often induce increased frequency of cancer. Among such substances are vitamins, thiol compounds, porphyrin derivatives, polyphenols and others, the antigenotoxicity of which is well established in various genetic tests. Probably a number of these compounds are included in the defense systems of organisms protecting them from harmful exogenous influences continuously affecting genetic material and other components of cells. Some vitamins show protective effects; for example, E, A and C vitamins are active against well-known mutagens both in vitro and in vivo. Genetic properties of other vitamins have been insufficiently explored, but positive results were obtained for a number of them suggesting the desirability of further studies in this field. Synergism of some vitamins activity, both with other vitamins and non-vitamin substances, is of particular interest because clarifying some of their mechanisms of action could be important for understanding the functions of our defense systems.