MORPHOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF CISPLATIN-INDUCED NEURITE OUTGROWTH IN N1E-115 NEUROBLASTOMA-CELLS

Cisplatin, a widely used cytostatic drug for the control of a variety of neoplastic tumors, unexpectedly induced neurite outgrowth in N1E-11 5 neuroblastoma cells and this phenomenon was studied further in detai l with morphometric analysis. As expected, cisplatin dose-dependently reduced cell number. At the same time, however, cisplatin affected the morphology of the neuroblastoma cells that changed from small rounded cell bodies into large flat cell bodies with neurites. The neurite le ngth/cell as a function of cisplatin concentration showed a bell-shape d curve. The maximal effect (1200% of control) on neurite length/cell was observed at 1 mu g/ml cisplatin. In conclusion, cisplatin induced cellular differentiation in N1E-115 neuroblastoma cells at and just ab ove threshold doses for cytostatic activity.