[Effect of cepharanthin on peripheral leukocytopenia caused by antineoplastic agents]

One of the problems in administration of anticancer drugs is a decrease of peripheral blood leucocytes which causes reduction of defense mechanism against various infections. In this study, for the purpose of protecting leucopenia after administration of anticancer drugs, an effect of cepharanthine which is a kind of alkaroid materials was examined in normal and tumor-bearing mice. Peripheral leucocytes of both normal and tumor-bearing mice receiving anticancer drugs gradually decreased during first two weeks, and in third and forth week they decreased rapidly. On the other hand, leucopenia was improved by simultaneous administration of anticancer drugs and cepharanthin; however, a complete repairment was hardly expected when anticancer drugs were continuously administered. A significant recovery of leucocytes was observed in mice receiving cepharanthin compared to those receiving only anticancer drugs. In any process of decreasing and recovering from peripheral leucocytes, proportions of differential counts of leucocytes were approximately identical. On the colony forming experiment for granulocytic stem cell (CFU-C) using bone marrow cells of normal, anticancer drugs-treated, and anticancer drugs plus cepharanthin-treated mice, it has been suggested that cepharanthin might have some influencing activity on hematopoietic cells or cell-mediated activity on hematopoiesis only in vivo.