A new assay to evaluate cell growth and drug sensitivity in culture using a cell image processor

The use of a cell image processor for the in vitro assessment of drug effects on cell growth, cell kinetics and chromatin organization is described. We have studied the influence of two well documented cytotoxic drugs, i.e. BCNU and vincristine (VIN), on the above mentioned parameters of the P-388 mouse leukemia, MCF-7 human mammary and HBL human melanoma cell lines. The cells were cultured for 1 to 4 days on glass coverslips put in Petri dishes containing or not (control) 10, 1 or 0.1 microgram/ml medium of the drug, after which they were fixed for histology, Feulgen-stained and analyzed through a cell image processor, i.e. the System for Analytical Microscopic Biomedical Applications (SAMBA 200). Our results showed that both BCNU and VIN exerted a well-known antineoplastic effect that was assessed at three different but highly complementary levels on the same sample of cells in a very rapid and simple procedure.