An anticancer drug prospidine: failure to reveal antimitotic and clastogenic action on regenerating mouse liver

Prospidine is an anticancer drug used in oncological practice in the USSR. It is characterized by only a slight toxicity and the absence of such side-effect as the hemopoiesis suppression. The mechanism of tumor growth inhibition by prospidine is still open to question. The present study was undertaken to reveal the potential mutagenic properties of prospidine, using regenerating mouse liver as rapidly proliferating cell system. Animals were given a single (900 or 1500 mg/kg) or daily (200 mg/kg for 9 days) injections of prospidine before or after partial hepatectomy. The mitotic activity, the duration of the cell cycle periods and the frequency of chromosome aberrations in ana-telophase were determined. The data show that unlike other alkylating drugs prospidine fails to suppress cell proliferation or to induce marked chromosome-breaking effects. The only mild effect observed was some prophase and prometaphase prolongation.