Study of cytotoxic effect of lithium ascorbate and its influence on oxidative stress in vitro

Nowadays there is a study of new promising compounds of lithium with antioxidative properties. Lithium ascorbate is one of these. Assessment of cytotoxic effect and oxidative stress induction by lithium ascorbate and ascorbic acid is made using peripheral blood mononuclear cells as cell model. Strong cytotoxic effect of lithium ascorbate and ascorbic acid manifested by increasing percentage of early apoptotic and late apoptotic/necrotic cells is shown. Induction of oxidative stress (increasing percentage of cell with reactive oxygen species) by these compounds is demonstrated. Following studies in experiments in vitro made on other cell cultures and in vivo studies are needed to evaluate properties of lithium ascorbate as a pharmacological agent.