Akio Hoshi

Platinum complexes derived from three isomers of 1,2-diaminocyclohexane have been synthesized and their antitumor activities were evaluated against ascites Sarcoma-180. All the platinum complexes had high antitumor activity. Platinum complexes derived from cis-1,2-diaminocyclohexane were more effective than those derived from trans-l-and trans-d-1,2-diaminocyclohexane. Among the platinum complexes tested, oxalato(cis-1,2-diminocyclohexane)platinum had a remarkably high therapeutic index. Modification of the nonleaving group as well as that of the leaving group is important in order to find better antitumor platinum complexes.

Severe diarrhea occurred during daily intraperitoneal administration of 7-ethyl-10-[4-(1-piperidino)-1-piperidino]carbonyloxycamptothecin (CPT-11) at a dose of 50 mg/kg in athymic mouse. Serial determination of CPT-11 and 7-ethyl-10-hydroxycamptothecin (SN-38), with the use of an on-line solid extraction HPLC system, demonstrated that much higher levels of the compounds are retained in the intestine and the blood plasma after five consecutive daily injections than after a single injection. Histologic examination of the gastrointestinal tract showed hemorrhagic colitis on day 7 and later after five consecutive daily injections of CPT-11. The direct cause of diarrhea associated with CPT-11 administration is considered to be enterocolitis caused by high levels of SN-38 and/or CPT-11 retained for a long period in the intestine.

The mutagenic activities of antitumor agents, including 5 antibiotics, 19 antimetabolites, 5 alkylating agents, 2 alkaloids, 1 enzyme, and 1 adrenal steroid hormone, were tested on Salmonella tyhimurium TA100, TA98, and TA92. Four of these, busulfan, carbazilquinone, 1-(4-amino-2-methylpyrimidine-5-yl)methyl-3-(2-chloroethyl)-3-nitrosourea hydrochloride, and pipobroman were shown for the first time to be mutagenic. Further, the known mutagenicities of five others, daunomycin hydrochloride, Adriamycin hydrochloride, mitomycin C, 6-mercaptopurine, and cyclophosphamide, were confirmed.

The differentiation potential of skeletal muscle-derived stem cells (MDSCs) after in vitro culture and in vivo transplantation has been extensively studied. However, the clonal multipotency of MDSCs has yet to be fully determined. Here, we show that single skeletal muscle-derived CD34-/CD45- (skeletal muscle-derived double negative [Sk-DN]) cells exhibit clonal multipotency that can give rise to myogenic, vasculogenic, and neural cell lineages after in vivo single cell-derived single sphere implantation and in vitro clonal single cell culture. Muscles from green fluorescent protein (GFP) transgenic mice were enzymatically dissociated and sorted based on CD34 and CD45. Sk-DN cells were clone-sorted into a 96-well plate and were cultured in collagen-based medium with basic fibroblast growth factor and epidermal growth factor for 14 days. Individual colony-forming units (CFUs) were then transplanted directly into severely damaged muscle together with 1 x 10(5) competitive carrier Sk-DN cells obtained from wild-type mice muscle expanded for 5 days under the same culture conditions using 35-mm culture dishes. Four weeks after transplantation, implanted GFP+ cells demonstrated differentiation into endothelial, vascular smooth muscle, skeletal muscle, and neural cell (Schwann cell) lineages. This multipotency was also confirmed by expression of mRNA markers for myogenic (MyoD, myf5), neural (Musashi-1, Nestin, neural cell adhesion molecule-1, peripheral myelin protein-22, Nucleostemin), and vascular (alpha-smooth muscle actin, smoothelin, vascular endothelial-cadherin, tyrosine kinase-endothelial) stem cells by clonal (single-cell derived) single-sphere reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Approximately 70% of clonal CFUs exhibited expression of all three cell lineages. These findings support the notion that Sk-DN cells are a useful tool for damaged muscle-related tissue reconstitution by synchronized vasculogenesis, myogenesis, and neurogenesis.