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Osmotic Properties and Permeability of Cancer Cells

I. Relative Permeability of Ehrlich Mouse Ascites Tumor Cells and of Mouse Erythrocytes to Polyhydric Alcohols and to Sodium Chloride^*

( Department of Pathology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia 4, Pa., Laboratory of Physiology, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J., and Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Mass.)

1. The cell of the Ehrlich mouse ascites tumor has been found to be favorable material for studies on cell permeability.

2. With a photoelectric method, relative permeability of the tumor cell has been evaluated for a series of polyhydric alcohols. The order in which these compounds penetrate the cell is: ethylene glycol > diethylene glycol > triethylene glycol > glycerol > erythritol.

3. The same order holds for mouse erythrocytes, but the relative rates of penetration are much slower for tumor cells.

4. The tumor cells, like erythrocytes, are relatively impermeable to sodium chloride; hence, solutions of this salt are suitable for the detection of cell injury and for studies on osmotic equilibrium.

^* This investigation was aided by a grant from The Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research, by an Institutional Grant from The American Cancer Society to the University of Pennsylvania, and by the Eugene Higgins Fund of Princeton University.

Received 9/10/53.