I. Muller et al., EFFECT OF CONCENTRATION ON THE CYTOTOXIC MECHANISM OF DOXORUBICIN-APOPTOSIS AND OXIDATIVE DNA-DAMAGE, Biochemical and biophysical research communications, 230(2), 1997, pp. 254-257
Anthracycline derivatives such as doxorubicin are part of many chemoth
erapeutic regimens and reach peak plasma concentrations of 5 mu M. We
investigated the cytotoxic mechanisms of various doxorubicin concentra
tions in MOLT-4 ALL-cells. Concentrations of up to 100 mu M doxorubici
n achieved similar cytotoxic effects in cultures of MOLT-4 cells, but
acted via different mechanisms. Doxorubicin induced apoptosis (maximum
effect at 1 mu M), which was dependent on RNA synthesis and involved
oxidative stress. Concentrations higher than 3 mu M did not induce apo
ptosis, but significantly inhibited RNA synthesis. DNA strand breaks i
n MOLT-4 cells occurred in the presence of 1 to 5 mu M doxorubicin to
a similar extent, but showed a dose-dependence at higher concentration
s. There was no GC/MS-detectable oxidation of DNA bases in apoptotic c
ells and only 1 out of 13 DNA base oxidation products, 8-hydroxyguanin
e, increased significantly in the presence of as much as 100 mu M doxo
rubicin. These results suggest that at pharmacologically relevant conc
entrations apoptosis and not oxidative DNA damage is the main killing
mechanism of doxorubicin against ALL cells. (C) 1997 Academic Press