Genotoxic effect of arecoline given either by the peritoneal or oral route in murine bone marrow cells and the influence of N-acetylcysteine.

The carcinogenic potentiality of the major alkaloid of betel nut, arecoline (ARC), is well established. This study was undertaken to determine the differences in genotoxic effects of ARC when given by two different routes (oral administration (OA) and intraperitoneal injection (IP)) in mouse bone marrow cells (BMC) since ARC carcinogenicity was observed only when ARC was given orally. The data indicate that ARC-OA induced a higher frequency of cancers, a greater delay in the cell cycle and greater sister chromatid exchanges than ARC-IP. The presence of N-acetyl cysteine along with ARC-OA significantly reduced the effect of ARC.