Anti-proliferative effects of deflazacort on Nb2 cells as quantitated by formazan production

Prolactin and other lactogenic hormones are mitogenic for the rat T-cell lymphoma line, Nb2. Glucocorticoids have antiproliferative effects on these cells. A limiting feature of experiments utilizing the Nb2 line is their labor-intensive nature. We therefore adapted the commonly used MTT dye proliferation assay for the Nb2 cell line. While rPRL, hPRL, oPRL, hGH, bPL, and to a lesser extent bPRL stimulated the Nb2 cells, hormones without lactogenic activity, rGH and oGH did not. Human serum and rat sera from animals bearing a PRL-secreting tumor stimulated the Nb2 cells in parallel to standards. Glucocorticoids had anti-proliferative effects on Nb2 cells in the presence of half-maximal or maximal PRL doses, as measured by the MTT proliferation assay. It has been claimed that an oxazoline steroid, deflazacort, has anti-inflammatory effects in clinical studies with fewer of the deleterious side-effects common to glucocorticoids. We therefore compared the in vitro anti-proliferative effects of deflazacort with other glucocorticoids. Deflazacort's negative effect on Nb2 cell proliferation was similar to that of cortisol and prednisolone and less than that of dexamethasone. We conclude that the MTT proliferation assay can be used to study both mitogenic and anti-proliferative substances in Nb2 cells. In addition we found that deflazacort acts similarly in vitro to other glucocorticoids.