COMPARATIVE-ANALYSIS OF COLCHICINE INDUCED MICRONUCLEI IN DIFFERENT CELL-TYPES IN-VITRO

In the present study we analyzed the induction of micronuclei (MN) by colchicine, at different treatment times, in four histogenetically dif ferent cell cultures: human skin fibroblasts (HSF), bovine skin fibrob lasts (BSF), bovine bladder fibroblasts (BBF) and human skin epithelia l cells (HK), developed and characterized in our laboratory. The frequ encies of dead cells, nuclear budding and mitotic index were also eval uated. The HSF and BSF cell lines showed similar frequencies of micron ucleated cells (4,7% and 4,9%, respectively) at 96 h of treatment time . The BBF cell line showed the lowest frequency of micronucleated cell s (2,6%) and HK did not show any MN. The studied cell lines differed i n their responses to colchicine. The data revealed the relevance of ut ilization of other end-points as growth curves, dead cells, mitotic in dex and other nuclear alterations for accurate analysis of the effect of agents that disturb cell cycle or are cytotoxic.