Effect of adriamycin on the RPC C2A cloned cell line from rat incisor pulp

RPC C2A cells, cloned from Wistar rat incisor pulp, were grown in culture 2-7 days after exposure to adriamycin at a concentration of 0.1 mg/L for 2 hours. Morphological changes, labelled proline incorporation and alkaline phosphatase activity were studied in response to this treatment.

At the light microscopic level, colonies of enlarged cells appeared 2 days after adriamycin treatment. The size of these colonies increased during the course of this study. The control samples showed no apparent changes. At the electron microscopic level, the small cells in the adriamycin-treated cultures showed fewer vesicles than the controls, but more prominent rough endoplasmic reticulum. However, the enlarged cells contained an abundance of vesicles, and few profiles of rough endoplasmic reticulum. Radiolabelled proline incorporation in the control group was significantly higher than the experimental after 2 days in culture, but showed no significant difference after 7 days. Histological staining for alkaline phosphatase showed that there was a slightly higher intensity in the control samples than in the experimental after 7 days in culture. Quantitative analysis showed that there were more alkaline phosphatase stained cells in the control than in the experimental cultures at this time.

This study has shown that the RPC C2A cells will respond to adriamycin treatment in vitro, where the acute effects were quite different from the protracted effects with respect to labelled proline incorporation and alkaline phosphatase activity.