Oxidative DNA damage: Induction by fructose, in vitro, and its enhancement by hydrogen peroxide.

Sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup comprise nearly equal amounts of glucose and fructose. With the use of high-fructose corn syrup in the food industry, consumption of fructose, which may be a tumor promoter, has increased dramatically. We examined fructose-induced oxidative DNA damage in the presence of Cu(II), with or without the addition of H ₂ O ₂ . With isolated DNA, fructose induced Cu(II)-mediated DNA damage, including formation of 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-oxodG), to a greater extent than did glucose, and H ₂ O ₂ enhanced the damage. In cultured human cells, 8-oxodG formation increased significantly following treatment with fructose and the H ₂ O ₂ -generating enzyme glucose oxidase. Fructose may play an important role in oxidative DNA damage, suggesting a possible mechanism for involvement of fructose in carcinogenesis.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)