Protective Effect of Genistein as Antioxidant, Included in Natto, on Yeast Cell Viability
by Sayaka Nagano
Category: STEM
Abstract – Breast cancer incidence rates remain high especially in the United States today, which may be due to its poor soybean diet and hence, the low genistein consumption. Genistein is a type of soy isoflavones which is shown to have protective effect in inducing apoptosis in breast cancer cells. In this investigation, protective effect of genistein was tested by measuring the activity of genistein as an antioxidant in relieving the oxidative stress caused in Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells as model organism. Yeast cells were treated with white fluorescent light to induce oxidative stress, and cell viability was observed to measure the degree of stress. The results suggest genistein relieves oxidative stress in yeast cells, but its activity saturates at higher genistein concentrations. However, further studies are required to run additional trials and reconsider the factors that limited the reliability of the results. The results may suggest high value of genistein in cancer research and offer this investigation as initial stage of cancer research scientists can run.