The main consequence of herbicides use is the presence of their residues in food of plant origin. A growing body of evidence indicates that herbicides cause detrimental effects upon human health while demonstrating a direct link of pesticides exposure with the occurrence of human chronic diseases, including cancer. There is a pressing need to develop our knowledge regarding interactions of food contaminants and food components both in vitro and in vivo. Pesticides are highly undesirable food contaminants, and traumatic acid (TA) is a very beneficial food ingredient, therefore we decided to study if TA may act as a compound that delays the stimulatory effect of pesticides on breast cancer cells. To analyze the potential effects that selected herbicides (MCPA, mesotrione, bifenox and dichlobenil) may have upon cancerous cells, we conducted studies of the cytotoxicity of physiological concentrations of four pesticides and the mix of TA with tested herbicides in three different breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7, ZR-75-1 and MDA-MB-231) and one normal healthy breast cell line MCF-12A. Based on the obtained results we conclude that TA in a concentration-dependent manner might influence selected effects of the studied herbicides for particular cancer cells lines.
Keywords: breast cancer; cytotoxicity; herbicide; mixture toxicity; traumatic acid.