SAFFRON EXTRACT EXHIBIT ANTIOXIDANT PROTECTIVE EFFECTON HUMAN MYOBLAST AND ZEBRAFISH EMBRYOS

Cell therapy is an intervention therapy where adult or embryonic stem cells are transplanted into a diseased tissue to treat damage or injury. This promising therapy can be performed in skeletal muscle patients with muscular dystrophy; nevertheless oxidative stress reduces muscle precursor cells (myoblasts) survival in the transplantation assays. Enhancement of the survival of injected cells within the host tissue can be approached by pre-treating cells with antioxidant molecules or inducing their endogenous antioxidant capacity. It is therefore important to identify and characterize new antioxidant molecules that control the viability of stem cells and precursor muscle cells. Many spices as Saffron (Crocus sativus), relevant to Middle East nutrition have shown a promising potential to provide potent antioxidants. Our in vitro results showed, by trypan blue exclusion assay and cell cycle, that pre-treatment of myoblasts (LHCN-M2) with methanolic (50 %) saffron extract increased the viability of cells after inducing oxidative stress. A concentration of 1 μg.mL-1 of saffron crude extract exhibited the best protective effect against hydrogen peroxideinduced oxidative stress and induces cellular adhesion restoration. Also, our data showed that superoxide dismutase mediates the antioxidant effect of saffron extract without any modification of Myf5 expression while inducing a decrease in myogenin expression. Zebrafish embryo pre-treatment with low concentrations of saffron extract protected embryos from H2O2 induced death in vivo, while, high concentrations induce tetanus.