Garlic oil prevents tributyltin-induced oxidative damage in vivo and in vitro.

Tributyltin (TBT) can be transported to the human body by contaminated seafood. Presently, there is no known effective strategy to eliminate TBT's toxic effects from contaminated food. The present study was conducted to investigate the ability of garlic oil (GO) to prevent TBT-induced oxidative damage in vivo as well as in vitro. The results follow: both reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and malondialdehyde content decreased in mice pretreated with GO, the number of cells with damaged DNA in unprotected mice increased significantly compared with that in GO-protected mice (comet assay), and the alleviation of the depletion of cortical thymocytes and damage to nucleoli and mitochondria in GO-protected mice was observed. In human FL (human amniotic cells; American Type Culture Collection) cell studies, TBT-induced intracellular ROS generation was significantly inhibited after FL cells were pretreated with GO, and the TBT-induced cytotoxic effects were also prevented by GO. The results led to the first observation that GO was effective in reducing TBT-induced oxidative damage both in vivo and in vitro. The possible protective mechanism may stem from the considerable ability of GO to scavenge ROS. We conclude that GO could be an effective agent or food supplement in reducing the toxicity of TBT.