Affiliations: Faculty of Education, Wakayama University, Wakayama,
Japan | Faculty of Nutrition, Kobe Gakuin University, Kobe,
Hyogo, Japan | Department of Applied Biological Chemistry, Osaka
Prefecture University, Sakai, Osaka, Japan
Abstract: In this experiment, we examine the functional property of
carotenoids; β-cryptoxanthin (Cry), zeaxanthin (Zea), β-carotene
(Car)) and ascorbic acid (AsA). The accumulation amounts of Cry, Zea and Car in
HepG2 cells cultured in the high concentration medium were larger than that in
a low concentration. Further those accumulation amounts in long incubation time
within 24~hours were greater than that in a shorter time. When the added
carotenoid concentration, with or without hydrogen peroxide, increased from 0
to 5 μM in the culture medium, the thiobarbituric acid reaction substance
(TBARS) values in the HepG2 cells decreased significantly (p < 0.05). The
decrease of TBARS values shows the antioxidative property of the carotenoids.
When AsA and Tocopherol(Toc) were added to the medium from 0 to 20 μM, the
TBARS values, with or without hydrogen peroxide, decreased significantly with
increasing concentrations of AsA and Toc respectively (p < 0.05). The
decreased amount of TBARS in 5 μM Cry compared with control(0 μM) was the
largest among 6 antioxidants (Cry, Car, Zea, Retinol(Ret), AsA, Toc) used in
this experiment.
