In vitro exposure to quercetin and genistein alters lipid peroxides and prevents the loss of glutathione in human progenitor mononuclear (U937) cells

The effects of flavonoids quercetin and genistein were investigated according to their potency to inhibit the oxidation of U937 cells via Fenton's pathway through the analysis of lipid peroxides and glutathione (GSH) levels. Human leukemia (U937) cells from the American Type Culture Collection were maintained at 37 degrees C for 24 h under 5% CO2 tension in RPMI-1640 medium containing 10% fetal bovine serum and 50 units ml(-1) each of penicillin and streptomycin. Cells were oxidized with iron 50 microM) or copper (50 microM) in H2O2 (0.01 mM) without or with a flavonoid sample (10 or 20 microM) for the lipid peroxidation studies. The GSH levels were measured (GSH Kit) before and after oxidation as above with different concentrations of flavonoids (0-40 microM). Lipid peroxide was measured by the thiobarbituric acid assay. Both quercetin and genistein at either the 10 or 20 microM level decreased lipid peroxidation significantly compared with their respective controls (P < 0.01). Lipid peroxides by Fe compared to the Cu-treated samples did not differ significantly from each other. However, the combination of flavonoids at the doses tested significantly (P < 0.001) decreased lipid peroxides, the effect being the same for both metal ions. The GSH levels increased significantly before exposure to the metal ions (for the different doses for the differences between the flavonoid samples and their respective untreated levels). For quercetin and genistein the increases in GSH above their untreated levels were 4.5, 8.3, 11.7 and 15 and 3.8, 7.9, 12.5 and 14.6 nmol 10(-6) cells, respectively, for the 5-40 microM levels tested for each flavonoid. Following the exposure to the metal ions, GSH levels remained almost the same for the different concentrations for each of the flavonoids tested but significantly above all of the controls and same for those of the untreated samples. The results indicate that both flavonoids inhibited lipid peroxides and the inhibition may be attributed to the prevention of loss of intracellular GSH levels in U937 cells.