[The effect of bleomycin on brain tumor cells in vitro (author's transl)]

In order to evaluate the efficacy of Bleomycin (BLM) against brain tumor, a study was made on the inhibitory effect of BLM on the proliferation of cells derived from 8 cases of astrocytoma and 2 cases of meningioma and the proliferation of Ehrlich ascitic, HeLa and Mouse-Foot-Pad cells of strained epithelial origin. Morphological changes induced by BLM were also observed with phase contrast microscope and scanning electron microscope. Actively growing monolayer cells were exposed to BLM whose concentration was adjusted to 0.15, 0.6, 2.5, 10, 40, 160 mug/ml in the cultivating medium for 7 days. The inhibitory effect on cellular proliferation was evaluated by calculating the number of cell nuclei. When the concentration of BLM was adjusted to 0.15 mug/ml, the inhibition of Ehrlich ascitic, HeLa and Mouse-Foot-Pad cells was greater than the control by 50%. On the contrary, a higher concentration of BLM, that is 0.6-10 mug/ml, was necessary in the case of brain cells. The latter cells appear to be generally less sensitive to BLM than the foregoing strained cells of epithelial origin. Morphological changes consisted of cytoplasmic vacuolation, shortening and narrowing of cytoplasmic processes, nucleolysis and flattening of the surface structure. These findings, however, were not confirmed to be changes specific to BLM. Lastly, a brief review of the literature and discussion were made on the methods of administration and tissue concentration of BLM.