African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 3 (9), pp. 484-488, September 2004           
ISSN 1684–5315 © 2004 Academic Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Assessment of a fruit extract (Sechium edule) on the labeling of blood elements with technetium-99m

Gláucio Diré Feliciano¹*, Maria Luísa Gomes¹,  Elaine Alves Correia Lima¹, Roberto Levi Jales³,  Mauro Castro Faria¹ and Mário Bernardo Filho²

¹Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Biologia Roberto Alcantara Gomes, Departamento de Biofísicae Biometria. Av. 28 de Setembro, 87, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 20551-030, Brazil.

²Instituto Nacional do Câncer, Centro de Pesquisa Básica, Praça Cruz Vermelha, 23, CEP 20230-130, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.

³Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Departamento de Farmácia, Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil.

*Corresponding author. E-Mail: gdire@hotmail.com. Fax: +552122543532. Phone: +552125876432.

Accepted 14 July, 2004

Natural products have been widely used by human beings. However, sometimes the biological effects of these products are not fully known. Chayotte (Sechium edule) is a vegetable used in the folk medicine. Red blood cells (RBC) labeled with technetium-99m (99mTc) have several clinical applications. The aim of this work was to evaluate the influence of an extract of chayotte on the labeling of blood elements with 99mTc using stannous chloride (SnCl₂) in the concentrations like to 1.2, 0.006, 0.0005 and 0.0006 mg/ml.  The extract of chayote was incubated in various concentrations for 1hour with blood which was withdrawn from Wistar rats. After that SnCl₂ was added and the incubation continued for more 1 h. Elapsed this time 99mTc as sodium pertechnetate (NaTcO₄) was toted. The blood was centrifuged and plasma (P) and RBC were isolated, also precipitated with trichloroacetic acid (TCA, 5%) and soluble (S) and insoluble (I) fractions (F) of plasma and cells (C) were determined. The radioactivity (ATI%) was rated in RBC, IF-P and IF-C. The results have showed that extract was able to reduce the radiolabeling using SnCl₂ (0.006, 0.0005 and 0.0006mg/ml). We can speculate that this effect may be on account of the products with oxidant proprieties.

Key words: chayote, red blood cells, plasma proteins, technetium-99m, radiopharmacy.