Studies on the mechanism of cytotoxicities of polyacetylenes against L1210 cell

This study was performed to investigate the mechanism of in vitro cytotosic actions of polyacetylenes which are panaxydol, panaxynol and panaxytriol isolated from Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer. DNA synthesis of L1210 cells was significantly inhibited with dose dependent pattern when L1210 cells were treated for 1 hour with over 5 .mu.g/ml of polyacetylenes. Panaxydol which had the most potent cytotoxicity among three polyacetylenes showed also the strongest inhibitory effect on DNA synthesis. Intracellular cyclic AMP levels of L1210 cells treated with 2.5 $\mu$g/ml of panaxydol or panaxytriol were significantly elevated on the incubation duration. The elevation of cyclic AMP levels by panaxytriol was higher than that by panaxydol, but no significant increase in cyclic AMP by panaxynol was observed. All three polyacetylenes had no effect on glycolysis of L1210 cells. Electron microscopic observations revealed that polyacetylenes caused damage to plasma membranes of L1210 cells in proportion to their cytotoxicities at each $ED_{50}$ value (panaxydol > panaxynol> panaxytriol). These results suggest that cytotoxicities of polyacetylenes against L1210 cells might be mediated by elevated cyclic AMP level, even though the relationship among their cytotoxicities, inhibitory effect on DNA synthesis and ability to elevation of cyclic AMP level are not fully agreed, and might be also related to membrane damage.