Studies on the influence of different drugs upon the proliferative answer of ASMC and fibroblasts in culture depending on drug concentration and exposition time

We investigated the proliferation of fibroblasts and A.S.M.C. in culture as a function of concentration and exposition time of D-Penicillamine, Prednisolone, Acetylsalicylic Acid and Chloroquine. For every drug we found a concentration that caused only small initial inhibition of cell growth but did not alter the kind of further proliferation compared with controls. This "optimal inhibiting drug concentration" was characteristic of the drug but uncharacteristic of the cell type. Lower concentrations lead to a slight increase of proliferation, higher concentrations to a decrease of proliferation and finally after specific times of exposure to cell degeneration. Chloroquine showed no proliferation increasing effect even in doses much lower than the equivalent human daily drug dose. The equivalent human daily drug dose for Chloroquine was much higher than the optimal inhibiting drug concentration whereas that for the other drugs was the same as the optimal inhibiting drug concentration. For each drug there was a linear correlation between the degree of inhibition of cell proliferation and the logarithm of drug concentration on every occasion the cell growth was examined. All the relationships demonstrated were true of both fibroblasts--and A.S.M.C.--cultures, which indicates that there is no connection between the type of cell and its reaction to these, specific, chemical, drugs. Our results show that culture methods are suitable for the study of cell drug interactions.

Oral anticoagulation in the treatment of a spontaneously metastasising murine tumour (3LL)

The effects of long-term anticoagulation with phenprocoumon on growth of the Lewis lung carcinoma (3LL) were studied. Oral anticoagulation initiated at the day of i.m. transplantation of the 3LL into C57BL mice significantly inhibited primary tumour growth and reduced the number of spontaneous metastases to the lungs. Intermittent anticoagulation was without effect on metastasis formation but still retarded primary growth. There was no influence of anticoagulation on the mean survival time (MST) of tumour-bearing animals. Phenprocoumon appears to improve the results of cyclophosphamide of 5-fluorouracil treatment, but there were no statisticially significant differences. In contrast, bleomycin treatment in combination with adjuvant anticoagulation suggested a possible drug synergy. No significant influence of anticoagulation on the response of the primary tumour to irradiattion was found, though the MST of irradiated and anticoagulated animals was greater than in the solely irradiated controls. The present investigations suggest that coumarin derivatives have some direct tumour-inhibiting capacities, but exert their antimetastatic action via deceleration of the blood clotting mechanism.

Treatment of isolated gonadotropin deficiency in men with synthetic LR-RH and a more potent analogue of LH-RH

Six patients with idiopathic isolated gonadotropin deficiency (IGD) were treated with 100 microgram LH-RH s.c. 3 times daily, leading to subnormal increases of serum gonadotropin (Gn) and testosterone (T) levels, and promoting puberty from stage I to stage II-III of TANNER. S.c. administration of 100 microgram of the more potent and longer-lasting analogue 6-D-Leu-10-Des-Gly-ethylamide-LH-RH induced LH and FSH rises after the very first application in these patients for more than 12 h. However, long-term therapy with the analogue (100 microgram s.c./day) did not improve hypogonadism. Paradoxically, on daily treatment (8 patients) with 6-D-Leu-10-Des-Gly-ethylamide-LH-RH the FSH serum levels fell after 1 week and the LH levels after 8 weeks of treatment.

[Effect of changing fat and protein levels on various fundamental characteristics of lipid and protein metabolism in the blood serum and on the body composition of growing rats]

A total of 263 young rats received 6 different diets containing varying levels of lipids and proteins. After a feeding period of not less than 3 weeks the animals were killed in a fasted state or after feeding and the blood serum was investigated for total lipids, free fatty acids, cholesterol, urea, creatinine and insulin. The bodies of the animals were analyzed for crude fat und crude protein. The body proteins seemed to be hardly influenced whereas considerable variations were noticed in the values for body fat, although these were not found to be clearly related to the intake of dietary fat. Values for the content of total lipids, free fatty acids and cholesterol in blood serum were shown to be clearly dependent on the amount of fat ingested. In addition, it was observed that these processes were partly influenced by dietary proteins. The values for urea, creatinine and insulin were only slightly affected by dietary fat, but were markedly changed by dietary proteins. Differences in total lipids and cholesterol as discussed above were blurred or disappeared altogether when the animals were analyzed after food intake; on the other hand, it was shown, that dietary proteins had a statistically well-established effect on the values for urea and a marked influence on insulin values.