evaluation of genoprotective effects of hydroalcoholic and polyphenolic extracts of quince by comet assay

cydonia oblonga mill. (quince) is a member of rosaceae family that widely used in iranian traditional medicine. this plant contains large amounts of flavonoids and polyphenols and has antioxidant, antibacterial, free radical scavenging and several other effects. this study was undertaken to evaluate the genotoxic and genoprotective effects of hydroalcoholic and polyphenolic extracts of quince on hepg2 cells. to evaluate genoprotective properties, cells were incubated by different concentrations of extracts for 2 hours followed by one-hour incubation period with genotoxic concentration (100 µm) of methylmethane sulfonate (mms). in this research, comet assay as a sensitive, inexpensive and easy performance method was used. tail length, percentage of dna in tail and tail moment were measured. the results showed that hydroalcoholic extracts of quince at 1, 10, 100 and 500 µg/ml and polyphenolic extracts of quince at 10, 50, 100 and 500 µg/ml has genoprotective  properties . the results revealed that all studied concentrations of both extracts had no genotoxic effect. also genoprotective properties of these extracts increased in a dose-dependent manner.