fragmentation

4-Methylimidazole (4-MEI) is a color widely found in cola drinks, roasted foods, grilled meats, coffee and other foods. This study was aimed to investigate the 4-MEI effects on the cell proliferation, purified circular DNA and DNA from cells of rats treated with the 4-MEI.In this study, mouse 3T3-L1 cell line was treated with 4-MEI at concentrations of 300, 450, 600 and 750 mu g/mL for 24 hours and 48 hours periods, after that cytotoxic effect of the 4-MEI was studied by MTT test. Also, the effect of 4-MEI on purified circular DNA (pET22b) was investigated by treating of the DNA with 4-MEI concentrations of 300, 450, 600 and 750 mu g/ml. DNA was extracted from liver cells of rats that have been treated with 4-MEI doses of 25 and 50 mg/kg for 10 week and it was subjected to agarose gel electrophoreses analyses. 4-MEI significantly inhibited cell proliferation of 3T3-L1 cell line at highest concentration for 24 h and at all concentration for 48 h treatment time