Antioxidants Effects on Human Cancer Cell Lines
Authors:
Manuel Cruz, Domenico RinaldiMentor:
Hector Valenzuela, Ph.D., Whittier CollegeThe consumption of antioxidants plays an important role in a healthy diet, as antioxidants act as catalyst in many biomedical reactions. The most important role they play is to react to oxygen free radicals and stabilize them. Oxygen free radicals cause cancer, which is the second leading cause of death in the United States. Recent studies suggest that antioxidants may prolong life, prevent heart disease, stroke, and even play a positive role in the prevention of several types of cancer by interacting with oxygen free radicals and stabilizing them. In this study we tested the effects of the pharmaceutical antioxidants carotene, vitamins C and E and resveratrol on a human immortal T cell line (Jurkats). The cells were exposed to 4 different concentrations for each of the compounds and measurements for histology, cell size, organization and clumping of cells, and most importantly viability (growth and apoptosis) recorded and compared to the controls. Testing is currently ongoing but preliminary results indicate that growth is diminished with the resveratrol treated cells. It is our hope that this study could give insights into the effect of antioxidants at different amounts of exposure.