ANTI-ERYPTOTIC ROLE OF QUERCETIN: A NOVEL THERAPEUTIC APPROACH TO ATTENUATES HYPEROSMOLARITY-INDUCED OXIDATIVE DAMAGE IN ERYTHROCYTES

Abstract

Quercetin, a dietary flavonoid, found in abundance in many food sources like vegetables, tea and fruits and has widely been studied due to its anti-inflammatory, antioxidative and cytoprotective properties. It has strong ability to scavenge free radicals helping in reduction of oxidative stress in cellular systems. In human erythrocytes it helps to reduce hyperosmotically induced oxidative stress that are the main triggers of eryptosis, programmed death of erythrocytes, mainly characterized by blebbing, cell shrinkage and PS exposure. In this study the antioxidative effect of quercetin was studied by using different therapeutic doses cited in literature on nucleated cells, resulted in increased activity of antioxidant defense system and reduced oxidative stress. This was confirmed by performing antioxidant enzyme assay (SOD, GPx and CAT). Mean cell volume (MCV) was evaluated by using hematology analyzer. As elevated intracellular Ca²⁺ is the main trigger of eryptosis hence the role of Ca²⁺ in eryptosis induction was confirmed by using amlodipine, a Ca²⁺ channel blocker. Hemolysis % was estimated to find out the cytotoxicity of quercetin. The findings of this study confirmed that the therapeutic doses of quercetin (25, 50 and 75μM) exhibited anti-eryptotic potential via mitigating the oxidative stress and subsequent Ca²⁺ entry, ultimately reduction in eryptosis.