INOSITOL AND THE PROTECTION OF CELLS: II. THE RELEASE OF NUCLEIC ACIDS FROM NORMAL AND MALIGNANT CELLS

Abstract

Various normal mouse or chicken cell types or Ehrlich ascites cells were incubated for periods of up to 3 hours in either Hanks' balanced salt solution (BSS) or 5% inositol solution. Cells incubated in inositol invariably showed better viability as judged by erythrosin staining than those incubated in BSS. Ehrlich cells incubated in BSS showed a reduced ability to take up oxygen after 90 minutes incubation while those in inositol did not. Mouse embryo and chick embryo cells were able to grow in tissue culture even after prolonged treatment with 5% inositol.Maintenance of cell viability was accompanied by a greater loss of RNA from the cell in inositol compared with BSS. This loss appeared to be relatively greater from normal cells than from Ehrlich cells, and in the case of chicken spleen the loss of RNA after 2 hours incubation in inositol was 10 or more times greater than in BSS. Purification and base composition data are presented for inositol-extracted RNA from normal chicken spleen cells, Ehrlich cells, and a subline of Ehrlich. Differences in base composition are apparent for each cell type. Some implications of these findings are discussed.