Effects of Adriamycin or CP-2 to the Rectal Mucosae of Mouse Implanted with Ehrlich Carcinoma Cells: An Autoradiographic Study

Wang, Jong Won; Ko, Jeong Sik; Ahn, E Tay; Park, Kyung Ho; Park, Dae Kyoon

Abstract

This experiment was performed to evaluate the morphological responses of the rectal intestinal glands of the mouse, inoculated with Ehrlich carcinoma cells, following administration of adriamycin or composition of the extracts of the Croton tiglium and Coptis chinensis rhizome (CP-2, Institute of Experimental Tumor Research, Seoul, Korea). Healthy adult ICR mice weighing 25 gm each were divided into normal and experimental groups (tumor control group, adriamycin treated group, and CP-2 treated group). In the experimental groups, each mouse was inoculated with 1 x 10(7) Ehrlich carcinoma cells subcutaneously in the inguinal area. From next day, 0.2 mL of saline, adriamycin (2 mg/kg) or CP-2 (30 mg/kg) were injected subcutaneously to the animals every other day, respectively. The day following the 7th injection of anticancer drugs, each mouse was injected with a single dose of 0.7 microCi/gm of methyl- 3H-thymidine through tail vein. Seventy minutes after the thymidine injection, animals were sacrificed. and rectal tissues were collected and fixed in 10% neutral formalin. Deparaffinized sections were coated with autoradiographic emulsion EM-1 (Amersham Lab., England) in the dark room and dried. The number of the labeled epithelial cells of the rectal crypts (mean number of labeled epithelial cells per 3.5 mm length of mucosa) were observed and calculated. On histological study, in the rectum of adriamycin treated groups, length of the intestinal crypts is shorter than those of the normal control ones. Disrupted intestinal crypts and epithelial cells were observed. But in the CP-2 treated group, morphological changes of the rectum were not observed. On autoradiographic study, number of the labeled cells of normal control, rumor control, adriamycin-treated, CP-2-treated groups were 263.1 (+/-38.65), 395.7 (+/-52.52), 73.3 (+/-22.54), 96.3 (+/-28.36), respectively. In the adriamycin and CP-2 treated groups., poorly-labeled cells containing only a few silver grains of 3H-thymidine were observed more frequently than in those of the normal and tumor control groups. But in the tumor control group, number of the heavy labeled cells were observed more frequently than in those of the normal control group. From the above results, adriamycin and CP-2 may suppress the DNA synthesis of the cells of the rectal crypts. But CP-2 does not result any histological defect on the rectal mucosa. These results suggest that CP-2 is expected as one of most effective anticancer drugs.