• Journal of Life Science
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• v.17 no.6 s.86
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• pp.791-797
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• 2007

We studied the inhibitory effect of solvent fractions from doenjang on mutagenicity using Salmonella typhimurium TA100 in Ames test. We also investigated the effect of solvent fractions from doenjang on the growth of tumor cells and the production of interleukin-2 (IL-2). The treatment of dichlorormethane and ethylacetate fractions (2.5 mg/assay) from doenjang to Ames test system inhibited aflatoxin B$_1$ (AFB$_1$) induced mutagenicity by 96% and 97%, respectively, and showed a higher antimutagenic effect than other solvent fractions. In case of N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguamidine (MNNG) induced mutagenicity, the ethylacetate fraction showed the highest inhibitory effect (by 75%) among the other sol-vent fractions, although the inhibitory effect was not stronger compared to AFB$_1$ induced mutagenicity. The treatment of dichloromethane and ethylacetate fractions markedly inhibited the growth of Yac-1 (by 80% and 94%, respectively) and sacroma-180 cancer cells (by 60% and 96%, respectively) after 4 days of incubation at 37${\circ}$C. To elucidate the immunological mechanism of antitumor activity of doenjang, spleen cells of Balb/c mouse were exposed to the dichloromethane and ethyl-acetate fractions for 24 hours at 37${\circ}$C . The culture supernatants following the treatment of djchloromethane and ethylacetate factions to spleen cells increased the production of IL-2. These results indicated that the anticarcinogenic effect of doenjang was mediated by the production of IL-2.