01880naa a2200229 a 450000100080000000500110000800800410001910000170006024501200007726000090019752012280020665000080143465000130144265000210145570000180147670000150149470000170150970000150152670000180154170000200155977300710157916788952015-01-06       2006    bl uuuu     u00u1 u    #d1 aFUKUMASU, H.  aProtective effects of guarana (Paullinia cupana Mart. var. Sorbilis) against DEN-induced DNA damage on mouse liver.  c2006  aGuarana (Paullinia cupana Mart. var. Sorbilis) is a plant originally from Brazil, which is rich in tannins. Some tannins are known to present protective effects against DNA damage. This study was performed to investigate the anti-genotoxic/cytotoxic properties of guarana in hepatocytes of mice injected with N-nitrosodiethylamine (DEN). The protective effect of guarana was evaluated both by comet assay and DNA smear fragmentation technique in two month-old female BALB/c mice. These were treated previously with 2.0 mg/g bw of guarana for 16 days and then injected with DEN (160 µg/g body weight) to induce DNA damage. The DEN-only treated group presented higher comet image length than the guarana plus DEN and untreated groups (116.06 ± 5.0 µm, 104.09 ± 3.3 µm and 93.28 ± 14.4 µm, respectively; p &lt 0.01). Guarana treatment presented a 52.54% reduction in comet image length when animals were exposed to DEN (p &lt 0.05). DNA samples from the guarana plus DEN group clearly showed less EtBr fluorescence intensity when compared to the DEN-only group, reinforcing the comet assay data. These results show, for the first time, that guarana has a protective effect against DEN-induced DNA damage in mouse liver.  aDNA  aGuaraná  aPaullinia Cupana1 aAVANZO, J. L.1 aHEIDOR, R.1 aSILVA, T. C.1 aATROCH, A.1 aMORENO, F. S.1 aDAGLI, M. L. Z.  tFood and Chemical Toxicologygv. 44, n. 6 , p. 862-867, jun. 2006.