Effect of overall charge and charge distribution on cellular uptake, distribution and phototoxicity of cationic porphyrins in HEp2 cells.

Five cationic porphyrins bearing one to four -N(CH(3))(3)(+) groups linked to the p-phenyl positions of 5,10,15,20-tetraphenylporphyrin (TPP) were synthesized in order to study the effect of overall charge and its distribution on the cellular uptake, phototoxicity and intracellular localization using human carcinoma HEp2 cells. The di-cationic porphyrins DADP-o and DADP-a accumulated the most within cells and preferentially localize within vesicular compartments and in mitochondria. Of these two only DADP-a was phototoxic to the cells (IC(50)=3 microM at 1 J/cm(2)). The mono-cationic porphyrin MAP was found to be the most phototoxic of the series, and it localized mainly in lipid membranes, including the plasma membrane, ER, mitochondria, and Golgi. Both the tri-cationic porphyrin TRAP and the tetra-cationic porphyrin TEAP localized subcellularly mainly in the mitochondria, but of the two only TEAP showed moderate phototoxicity (IC(50)=8 microM at 1 J/cm(2)). Our results suggest that MAP is the most promising PDT photosensitizer, and that both DADP-o and TRAP might find application as transport vehicles for therapeutics into cells.

Synthesis of deoxytetrahydrouridine.

The alpha-hydroxyamido functionality of 2'-deoxytetrahydrouridine (dTHU) makes this seemingly simple and generally useful compound difficult to obtain. Reported synthetic strategies produce extremely poor yields and multiple products, and full characterization data is not available. Described herein is a two-step approach for synthesizing dTHU in increased yields and purity; stability concerns are also addressed. Catalytic reduction (5% Rh/alumina) of 2'-deoxyuridine, followed by reduction with sodium borohydride as a limiting reagent, produces dTHU and limits formation of side products. Evidence was obtained for formation of a methoxy-substituted analogue during purification. By this strategy, dTHU of >95% purity can be obtained in 40% yield on a 150 mg scale.

Stability of cultured dental follicle cells.

Because the dental follicle is required for tooth eruption, establishment of dental follicle cell (DFC) lines is needed for experimentation to determine how the cells regulate eruption. Thus, it is critical that the follicle cells in culture remain stable and neither become transformed nor differentiate. To determine the stability of rat DFC cultures in terms of exhibiting contact inhibition of growth when confluent (no transformation), DFC at different passages were analysed using flow cytometry. Gene expression of cyclin E was determined by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction as a further method to determine if growth was occurring when the cells were confluent. Alkaline phosphatase and von Kossa staining were also performed as a means of determining stability in terms of differentiation; that is, are the DFC maintaining their phenotype or are they differentiating into osteoblasts and osteocytes? After plating cells of a given passage, they initially underwent a rapid phase of growth with 30-40% of the cells in S, G(2) and M (dividing track) as determined by flow cytometry. The number of such cells declined to only 7-15% at preconfluency. At late confluency, only 2 and 5% of the cells were in the dividing track in passages 6 and 9, respectively, but in passage 12 this had risen to 15%. For a given passage of cells, cyclin E gene expression significantly declined in late confluency as compared to the early growth phase. However, in passage 12, the gene expression of cyclin E at late confluency was higher than the expression at late confluency in passage 6. Thus, the DFC were remarkably stable through passage 9, but by passage 12 it appeared that a small percentage of the cells had become transformed and had lost their contact inhibition growth properties. Alkaline phosphatase and von Kossa staining were negative for all passages, suggesting that the cells remained stable in terms of differentiation and did not differentiate into either osteoblasts or osteocytes.