Effects of various oxygenation conditions on the enhancement by Fluosol-DA of melphalan antitumor activity

The cytotoxicity of melphalan toward exponentially growing FSaIIC fibrosarcoma cells under hypoxia, normal aeration, hyperoxygenation, and stationary phase normally oxygenated cells was examined. Through 4 logs of cell kill by melphalan, there was no difference in survival of FSaIIC cells under any of the four conditions. In the fifth and sixth logs of cell kill, melphalan was most cytotoxic toward normally aerated cells. DNA alkaline elution was performed in FSaIIC cells treated for 1 h with melphalan under the various atmospheres. Both upon immediate elution and after a 6-h delay period the greatest number of DNA cross-links were formed in the normally oxygenated cells. Tumor growth delay studies of the FSaIIC fibrosarcoma treated with melphalan were performed under four levels of oxygenation. From air breathing to 100% oxygen at 3 atm, the tumor growth delay produced by melphalan increased from about 3 days to about 9 days. With the addition of Fluosol-DA, there was an increase in tumor growth delay by melphalan from about 6.5 days with air breathing to about 13 days with 100% oxygen at 3 atm (1 h). When FSaIIC fibrosarcoma tumors were treated with melphalan, and tumor cell survival was measured by colony formation in culture, increasing doses of melphalan produced increasing levels of tumor cell kill in a relatively log linear manner. The addition of Fluosol-DA to treatment with melphalan produced approximately 1 log greater tumor cell kill than melphalan and air breathing under the various oxygenation conditions. There was approximately a 4-fold increase in toxicity to bone marrow granulocyte-macrophage colony-forming units under both extended carbogen breathing conditions (6 h) and hyperbaric oxygenation conditions (100% oxygen, 1 h, 3 atm). The response of the spleen to these various treatment regimens appeared to be immediate and shortlived. Necrotic cells were seen on day 1 posttreatment, with a substantial reduction by day 4 posttreatment. Mitotic figures were essentially absent from the liver on day 1 posttreatment, but by day 4 were significantly increased in treatment groups receiving Fluosol-DA, with the largest number seen in the melphalan/Fluosol-DA with carbogen-breathing group. In conclusion, Fluosol-DA and 1 h of carbogen breathing significantly increases the antitumor activity of melphalan without a concomitant increase in normal tissue toxicity. Although increasing the oxygenation level increased the response of the tumor, normal tissue toxicity was also increased.