Antioxidant Effect of Poncirin and Cytotoxicity on Cultured Human Skin Fibroblast Damaged by Methyl Mercury

In order to evaluate on the cytotoxicity of methyl mercury (MM) and antioxidant effect of phenolic compound, poncirin against MM-induced cytotoxicity, XTT assay was performed to determine the cell viability after human skin fibroblasts (Detroit 51) were grown in the media containing various concentrations of methylmercuric chloride (MMC). And also, the antioxidant effect of poncirin on the cytotoxicity induced by MMC was examined by cell viability and 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity in these cultures. MMC decreased cell viability in dose-dependent manner in these cultures and the midcytotoxicity value was determined at concentration of 30 μM MMC after human skin fibroblasts were treated with 10~50 μM MMC for 72 hours, respectively. MMC was highly toxic on cultured human skin fibroblasts by toxic criteria. MMC-mediated cytotoxicity was related with oxidative stress by the diminution of toxic effect according to the treatment of vitamin E. In the antioxidant effect of poncirin, it showed vitamin E-like DPPH radical scavenging activity at 90 ㎍/㎖ poncirin and also, remarkably increased cell viability compared with MMC-treated group. From these results, it is suggested that MMC-mediated cytoxicity was highly toxic and was related with oxidative stress in cultured human skin fibroblasts, and also phenolic compound such as poncirin showed the protection on MMC-induced cytotoxicity by antioxidant effect in these cultures.