[Alpha-lipoic acid triggers elimination of cells with abnormal nuclei in human carcinoma epidermoid cell line].

The skin is usually exposed to adverse environmental conditions that may cause pathological cell proliferation and cellular transformations leading to the formation of malignant cells. Antioxidants may affect these processes and induce the elimination of transformed cell. The purpose of this work was to investigate the effect of alfa-lipoic acid on human carcinoma epidermoid cell line A431. Our results showed that alfa-lipoic acid induced inhibition of cell proliferation or stimulated apoptotic cell death. Cells with abnormal nuclei were eliminated by apoptosis. Electron microscopy showed that survived cells had typical for control cells shape and organization of the nuclei, organization of the cytoplasm and organelles. Thus, alfa-lipoic acid not only triggered apoptosis of carcinoma cells, but it may also activate the mechanism of elimination of cells with abnormal chromosome number.