DNA damage and repair in normal and neoplastic cells treated with adriamycin.

Abstract

Adriamycin (ADR), a common antineoplastic drug, was used to study DNA repair synthesis, cell cytotoxicity and DNA single strand breaks in normal human fibroblasts--CLV98 and human melanoma cells--ME18. No repair synthesis was observed in ME18 and CLV98 cells exposed to adriamycin in concentrations up to 10(-5) M. ME18 cells were less sensitive to ADR treatment than CLV98 cells. Adriamycin-induced DNA single strand breaks (at ADR concentration: 1 microgram/ml) were incompletely repaired in ME18 cells and unrepaired in CLV98 cells within 24 h after drug removal. Within 48 h strand breaks were completely repaired in both kinds of cells. No repair of single strand breaks was observed in ME18 and CLV98 cells after drug treatment in the concentration of 5 micrograms/ml.