Isoorientin plays an important role in alleviating Cadmium-induced DNA damage and G0/G1 cell cycle arrest.

Cadmium is a heavy metal pollutant that has been reported to cause oxidative stress, apoptosis, and autophagy in cells, while the flavone isoorientin is a traditional Chinese medicine extract that has proven antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Accordingly, in this study we used the rat proximal tubular cell line NRK-52E and primary rat proximal tubular (rPT) cells as models to investigate the effects of isoorientin against Cadmium-induced cell injury and the mechanism of these effects. Comet assay, Western blot, flow cytometry, immunofluorescence, and transmission electron microscopy were used to evaluate cell damage and cell-cycle-related protein expression. Furthermore, real-time cell analysis, cell-counting kit-8, and ELISA were used to investigate the role of isoorientin in Cadmium-induced cell injury. The results revealed that treatment of rat renal tubular epithelial cells with 2.5 µM Cd for 12 h resulted in DNA damage and G0/G1 cell cycle arrest, while isoorientin attenuated this Cd-induced damage.