CYTOGENETIC CHROMOSOMAL PREPARATIONS USING 2-METHOXYESTRADIOL

The antimitotic drug 2-methoxyestradiol is an end metabolite of catech ol estrogens. In vivo, it arrests cells in mitosis by interfering with the dynamics of the mitotic spindle without disrupting tubulin format ion. It has a mitotic index similar to that of Colcemid in different c ell lines. Here we report that 2-methoxyestradiol can be used for maki ng cytogenetic preparations of comparable quality to that of colcemid. In addition, 2-methoxyestradiol is devoid of the toxicity associated with Colcemid, which may make 2-methoxyestradiol useful in slowly grow ing samples often found in primary solid tumor cultures where a suffic ient number of mitotic cells is difficult to obtain. (C) Elsevier Scie nce Inc., 1998.