[Cell kinetic effect of carcinostatic agents using BrdU and its monoclonal antibody]

We have investigated the cell kinetic effect of four carcinostatic agents (MMC, CDDP, ADR and 5-FU) on the human gastric cancer cell line (KATO-III; signet ring cell carcinoma) by means of flow cytometry (FCM), using bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) and its monoclonal antibody. Cancer cells in the S phase were first labelled with BrdU and then the bivariate DNA/BrdU distribution was examined to analyze the effect on the cell cycle. Furthermore, cells were reincubated at 24 hours after labelling to evaluate the cell turnover during FCM. MMC, CDDP and ADR assembled the cells into late S phase and G2M phase, while 5-FU assembled them into S phase. after 24 hours, cells with cessation of cell cycle had inhibited their proliferation. We conclude that this technique can be usefully applied as a susceptibility test of carcinostatic agents, since it could define the phase where carcinostatic agents acted on cancer cells.