MORPHOLOGICAL ALTERATIONS CAUSED BY LITHIUM IN VARIOUS CELL-LINES

Lithium is being used for the treatment of mental diseases and for the attenuation of muelosuppression during chemotherapy. As during long t erm lithium treatment kidney damage has been reported, we studied morp hological alterations in cells of kidney origin after exposure to lith ium chloride. Above the level of 4 mmol, lithium has fatal effects in CV1 cells while HeLa cells that are not originating from kidneys, tole rate higher lithium concentrations. Cellular morphology alters during treatment duration. At early stages, cells become flatter on their sub strate and upon longer than 4 days treatment begin to detach from thei r substrate and eventually cell death comes in a concentration depende nt manner. The only morphological alteration observed in a lymphoblast oid cell line was a statistically significant cellular swelling.