Vitamin D3, a possible nuclear protector in normal hepatic and medullar tissue in white Wistar rats treated with cytostatics. Radioisotopic and cytogenetic aspects.

Vitamin D3 was given to male Wistar rats in 3 doses totalling 10,000 IU/kg b.w. then, within 24 hrs, girostan (10 mg/kg b.w.), lomustin or CCNU (10 mg/kg b.w.), all cytostatic substances, were injected in a single dose. Association of vitamin D3 with these cytostatics was found to reduce incorporation of 3H thymidine and a return to normal of RNA synthesis. This suggests that vitamin D3 has a protective effect by maintaining the stability of the double helix. Cytogenetically, the level of the recombinations and of the lesions themselves changes in relation to the structure of the alkylant used, and the damage is smaller if vitamin D3 is given before cytostatics.

Micronucleus test applied in patients with acute leukemia, before and at different intervals during the cytostatic treatment.

The micronucleus test was applied in a group of 36 patients with malignant disease of the blood (acute lymphoblastic leukemia, ALL, and acute non-lymphocytic leukemia, ANLL) in order to evaluate to what extent it may be relevant for the efficiency of the cytostatic treatment. To this end, the test was applied at the onset of the disease (when diagnosed) and at different intervals after initiating the cytostatic therapy. Determination of the incidence of micronucleated cells and immature cells (blasts) at the two moments of the study established a correlation between the frequency of micronucleated cells and blast cells, the response to the anticancerous treatment and survival duration, the data obtained reflecting the prognostic value of the test in some malignant hemopathies.