Autoradiographic localization of tritiated suramin in polarized human colon adenocarcinoma cells

In this report we demonstrated that [3H]suramin enters polarized human colon adenocarcinoma cells when added to the apical side of the monolayer. Using light microscopic quantitative autoradiography, we showed that suramin was accumulated in the apical cytoplasm and in the nucleus. In contrast, a weak labeling was noted in other compartments such as the basolateral cytoplasm and the intercellular space. The accumulation of suramin in the apical region of the cells is consistent with previous data showing that suramin elicited a lysosomal storage disorder in HT29-D4 cells by a mechanism of polarized endocytosis.