146 T . Kisnanto et al .: Radioprotection 2024 , 59 ( 2 ), 144 – 151
Fig . 1 . Effect of radioprotectant agent supplementation on MDA levels in the liver ( A ) and spleen ( B ) tissue homogenates of Wistar rats exposed to 6 Gy TBI . * Significant different compare to the 6 Gy group ( p < 0.05 , LSD post hoc test ); ns = not significant .
level was expressed in total protein concentration ( mg / mg protein ).
2.7 The alkaline comet assay
The comet assay procedure was done according to the method of Darlina et al . ( 2022 ) with minor modifications .
2.8 Statistical analysis
The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 24.0 software . Data are presented as mean ± SD and considered statistically significant at p < 0.05 . Statistical analyses were conducted using one-way analysis of variance ( ANOVA ) with LSD post hoc tests where appropriate .
3 Results
3.1 MDA level
The effect of gamma irradiation and radioprotectant agents on MDA levels can be seen in Figure 1 . The results of the current study explained that levels of MDA in the liver and spleen tissue in the 6 Gy group liven up significantly compared to the control group ( p = 0.004 ; p = 0.02 ). Meanwhile , radioprotectant agents ( temulawak , garlic , and NAC ) were administered prior to gamma irradiation and showed slightly different data on MDA levels in the liver and spleen .
Temulawak extract significantly declined MDA levels in the liver and spleen compared to the 6 Gy group ( p = 0.003 ; p = 0.008 ). Garlic extract could not significantly drop MDA levels in the liver and spleen ( p = 0.069 ; p = 0.064 ). NAC could only significantly reduce MDA levels in the liver ( p = 0.012 ), whereas , in the spleen , it was not significant ( p = 0.642 ).
3.2 GSH level
Figure 2 describes the effect of gamma irradiation and radioprotectant agents on GSH levels . The lowest GSH levels were observed in the 6 Gy group and significantly differed from the control group in the liver tissue ( p = 0.015 ) and spleen tissue ( p = 0.003 ).
In the liver tissue , temulawak and garlic extracts elevate GSH levels significantly compared to the 6 Gy group ( p = 0.021 ; p = 0.044 ). NAC could also liven up GSH levels , but not significantly different . In contrast , only NAC significantly increased GSH levels in the spleen tissue compared to the 6 Gy group ( p = 0.010 ). Meanwhile , temu-lawak and garlic extracts also increased GSH levels but were not significantly different ( p = 0.210 ; p = 0.519 ).
3.3 The alkaline comet assay
The alkaline comet assay was carried out to examine the extent of spontaneous DNA damage in rat blood lymphocyte cells with four parameters assay , namely Tail Length ( TL ), Tail