ABSTRACT
Other investigators have reported that transplantable murine colon Tumor 26 is more sensitive than transplantable colon Tumor 38 to treatment with N-(2-chloroethyl)-N'-(trans-4-methylcyclohexyl)-N-nitrosourea. The present report presents the results of several kinds of in vivo and in vitro experiments that were performed to compare the effects of this agent upon these two tumors or upon cultured cells derived from them. In the in vivo experiments, data were also obtained for the spleens, colons, and marrow of the host animals. In the in vivo experiments, it was observed that: (a) approximately equal quantities of 14C from the 2-chloroethyl-14C-labeled agent were fixed to the DNA of the two tumors and the three host tissues following a single i.p. injection of the radioactive agent; (b) in all of the tissues examined at 24 hr after treatment, the drug caused greater inhibition of the synthesis of DNA than of the synthesis of RNA or protein, and the extents of inhibition of DNA synthesis were greater at 24 hr after treatment than at 6 hr after treatment; (c) the inhibition of DNA synthesis was slightly greater for Tumor 26 than for Tumor 38; (d) although the extents of inhibition of synthesis of DNA by Tumor 26 and by the colonic mucosa were similar at 24 hr after treatment of the animal, colonic mucosa much more quickly recovered the ability to synthesize DNA; and (e) the agent had no significant effect upon the sizes of the pools of purine and pyrimidine ribonucleoside phosphates. Cultured cells derived from the two tumors retained their tumorigenicity upon reimplantation into mice and their differential sensitivities to the agent, although approximately equal quantities of the 14C of the radioactive agent were fixed to the nuclei of the cells. In the in vitro experiments, the main effect of the agent upon the synthesis of macromolecules was the delayed inhibition of synthesis of DNA by Tumor 26 cells. Several experimental methods yielded evidence that the agent caused strand scission of the DNA of both kinds of cells, and there was more evidence of cross-linking of the DNA of Tumor 26 cells than of Tumor 38 cells. These results are consistent with the possibility that the differences in sensitivity of the two tumors to the agent are due to differences in the extents of cross-linking of the DNA. This explanation would be in agreement with the proposal suggested by other investigators who worked with other experimental systems.
