In vitro evaluation of the possible genotoxic effects of acrylamide and 5-hydroxymetylfurfural by single cell gel electroporesis (comet) assay

Food cooking processes containing carbohydrates forms acrylamide (AA) and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) through Maillard reaction. These two substances are known as carcinogenic. Coffee consumption is a major exposure route of AA and HMF. Caffeic acid (CA) is an antioxidant naturally found in coffee. Our study aimed to evaluate the possible oxidative DNA damage induced by AA and HMF in CA-treated or CA-untreated Chinese hamster lung fibroblast cells (V79 cells) and human hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines (HepG2 cells). Genotoxicity was evaluated by the single cell gel electrophoresis (comet) technique. The cells were treated with different concentrations of AA, HMF (1–100 μM) and CA (25 and 50 μM) and different combinations of AA, HMF and CA with each other for 1 h. DNA damage was expressed as DNA tail intensity. In V79 cells, the doses of AA (1–50 μM) and HMF (1–100 μM) did not increase DNA damage alone. DNA damage was increased at the doses of 100 μM AA, 25 μM HMF, 25 and 50 μM CA and the genotoxic effects of AA were decreased when combined with 25 and 50 μM CA in V79 cells. In HepG2 cells, only 5 μM and 10 μM HMF increased DNA damage, but most of dose combinations of AA and HMF with CA caused more DNA damage in HepG2 cells than V79 cells. Our results show that AA and HMF alone may not cause considerable DNA damage, however CA might induce DNA damage at high doses in V79 cells.