Avaliação in vitro da citoxicidade e genotoxicidade de uma formulação em orabase de Libidibia ferrea L.

Abstract

Stomatitis is one of the most common inflammatory pathologies of the oral cavity. Lesions are treated symptomatically, often through the administration of topical medications. Therapeutic alternatives based on herbal medicines have been studied, especially regarding their safety of use, evaluating their biocompatibility, cytotoxic and genotoxic effect. Widely found in northern and northeastern Brazil, jucá (Libidibia ferrea) is popularly known for its medicinal properties as antifungal, anti-inflammatory and healing activities. The objective of the present work was to evaluate the cytotoxic and genotoxic effect of a 2% L. ferrea L. stem bark herbal extract ointment. The biocompatibility of the ointment was evaluated from cell culture tests with human MRC5 fibroblasts, whose samples were solubilized in DMSO for stock solution preparation and separated at 25, 50 and 100 µg / mL test concentrations, with doxorubicin as control. positive and DMSO as negative control. The Alamar blue test evaluated cytotoxicity; Trypan blue exclusion assay evaluated cell viability; and hematoxylin and eosin differential staining evaluated cell morphology. Genotoxicity was evaluated by the comet assay at alkaline and neutral pH. The test results were tabulated and statistically analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics using the ANOVA Test (p 0.05). Given the results, there was no cytotoxic activity or morphological changes that induced cell death for the test formulation. When genotoxicity was evaluated, the Jucá-based formulation was unable to induce DNA damage in MRC-5 at 25 and 50 µg / mL concentrations in either a neutral or alkaline pH comet. In the alkaline pH assay, the most frequent damage observed was grade 1, at 100 µg / mL, demonstrating that genotoxicity was concentration dependent. It can be concluded that the tested formulation is biocompatible, showing no cytotoxic and genotoxic effects under the tested conditions, demonstrating viability for future in vivo tests.