CANCER LETTERS ELSEVIER Cancer Letters 110 (1996) 123- 128 Micronuclei-induction and its correlation to cell survival in HeLa cells treated with different doses of adriamycin Ganesh Chandra Jagetia”,*, Vijayashree Nayak ‘Department of Radiobiology, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, 576 119, India Received 13 August 1996; accepted 10 September 1996 Abstract The treatment of HeLa cellswith different concentrations of adriamycin (0, 5, 10,25, 50 and 100 &ml) resulted in a significant anddose-dependent decline in the cell survival. Conversely, the frequency of micronuclei increased in a concen- tration-dependent manner. Themicronuclei-induction andcell survival werefoundto be inversely related. Keywrds: HeLa cells;Adriamycin; Micronuclei-induction; Cell survival 1. Introduction Adriamycin is an antibiotic derived form Strepto- rqws peucetius caesius. It has been reported to pro- duce pronounced inhibitory effect on neoplastic proliferation in mouse and rat tumors in vivo [l] and in vitro [2]. Adriamycin has been used to treat severalhuman tumors like carcinomas of the endome- trium, testes, prostrate, cervix and head and neck, and in plasmacell myeloma [3]. Adriamycin inducesstrong sideeffects suchasalo- pecia and myelosuppressionlike other chemothera- peutic drugs and these are the dose-limiting factors [4]. This is further complicated by the cumulative cardiotoxicity exhibited by this drug [.5,6]. Adriamycin has been reported to produce chroma- * Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 8252 71200; fax: +9 I 8252 70062. tid and chromosome aberrations, DNA single and double strand breaks in vitro and in vivo [7-91. Furthermore, adriamycin has been reported to induce point mutations in bacteria [lo] and mammalian cells [7,1 I]. It also induced a broad spectrumof genemuta- tions at hprt locus in V79 cells [ 121 and large deletion in CHO cells [13]. The genotoxic actions of chemotherapeuticagents can lead to the development of second cancers in patients in extended remission [ 14,151 and also in health care workers exposed to various anticancer agents. The adriamycin also possesses carcinogenic potential in man, because it hasbeen found to induce malignant transformation and tumors in animals and man [16,17]. The induction of micronuclei by adriamycin and its relationship with cell survival has not been studied. Therefore, the presentstudy was undertakento obtain an insight into the effect of different dosesof adria- mycin on micronuclei induction and their correlation with cell survival in cultured HeLa cells. 0304-3835/96/$12.00 Copyright 0 1996 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved PII SO304-3835196)04470-9