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Acute Ultrastructural Effects of the Antitumor Antibiotic Carminomycin on Nucleoli of Rat Tissues¹

Department of Pharmacology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030

Male Sprague-Dawley rats were treated with carminomycin i.v. in doses ranging from 1 to 40 mg/kg. Within 1 hr after the administration of carminomycin, 20 mg/kg, nucleoli of cardiac and skeletal muscle cells were segregated, while nucleoli of liver parenchyma cells were unaffected. Three and one-half hr after drug administration, cardiac muscle nucleoli reverted to normal ultrastructure. However, some skeletal muscle cell nucleoli were still segregated. Following treatment with carminomycin, 10 mg/kg, no significant ultrastructural changes were observed.

These results demonstrate that at sufficiently high doses carminomycin induces ultrastructural lesions in nucleoli of both cardiac and muscle cells. The dose of carminomycin required to produce nucleolar segregation in cardiac and skeletal muscle is 6 times greater than the dose of Adriamycin (3.5 mg/kg) required to induce equivalent alterations.

¹ This investigation was supported by Grant CA-10893, P.5, awarded by the National Cancer Institute, Department of Health, Education and Welfare; Bristol-Myers Fund; the Pauline Sterne Wolff Memorial Foundation; and a generous gift from Mrs. Jack Hutchins.

Received 1/26/78. Accepted 1/10/79.