[The dehydration action of ketamine on tumorous and normal glandular breast tissues in vitro]

The authors studied the effect of the ketamine anesthetic on hydration of tumoral and normal glandular cells and on the binding of labelled ouabain with the tissues in order to reveal changes in the number of active Na-K-ATPase molecules on the cell membrane. Hydration of tumoral and normal cells diminished in one-hour incubation in a solution of narcotic and subnarcotic doses of ketamine based on Tyrode's solution. The binding of ouabain by 3H also sharply reduced in a concentration of 10(-8) M in 30 min incubation, after incubation of pieces of tissues in ketamine, which was also evidence of reduction of the cell volume. This proves that the content of water in the tumoral cells increases and that ketamine in subnarcotic doses exerts a selective effect on tumoral cells.