Fig. 7.

Increase in the genotoxicity of PhIP by ethanol: MCF-7 cells were treated with ethanol, PhIP or ethanol plus PhIP for 24 h, following treatment cells were allowed to recover for 48 h and then analyzed for cytotoxicity (a) and genotoxicity (b). micronucleus (MN) frequency per 1000 cells was measured following treatment (1000 cells/slide and two slides per culture). Etoposide was used as the positive control. Ethanol-induced ROS was inhibited by the addition of N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) (c). Inclusion of NAC in incubations did not affect cytotoxicity (d), but ethanol plus PhIP-mediated genotoxicity was attenuated (e). Data are shown relative to control 0.1% DMSO. Statistically significant differences for treatments vs. control were calculated using one-way ANOVA with a Dunnett’s post test in GraphPad Prism 6, ***p < 0.001, **p < 0.01. Error bars represent standard error of the mean (SEM) for independent cultures (n = 3). Statistically significant difference between the indicated treatments was determined by Student’s t test GraphPad Prism 6, **p < 0.01, *p < 0.05, NS not significant