title: Characterization of multidrug resistance by fluorescent dyes.
abstract: Fluorimetric techniques were used to examine accumulation of fluorescent probes by the P388 murine leukemia and an anthracycline-resistant subline, P388/Adriamycin(ADR), which expresses the multidrug-resistant phenotype. P388 could be differentiated from P388/ADR on the basis of fluorescence intensity measurements using 3 classes of cationic dyes that are sensitive to membrane potential differences: rhodamine esters, cyanines, and styrylpyridinium dyes. But fluorescence intensity differences were also observed with potential-insensitive dyes: zwitterionic rhodamines and an acridine orange derivative. In all cases, fluorescence intensity differences were caused by impaired dye accumulation, and could be eliminated by treatment of P388/ADR cells with verapamil. Moreover, fluorescence signals from 2 anionic potential-sensitive dyes, merocyanine 540 and a bis-oxonol, were identical in P388 and P388/ADR. None of these dyes could be used to delineate CCRF-CEM, a lymphoblastic leukemia of human origin from the CEM/VM-1 subline that exhibits a markedly atypical drug resistance pattern not based on an enhanced outward transport. But accumulation of both neutral and cationic dyes was impaired in CEM/VLB100, a subline of CCRF-CEM expressing mdr. These studies show that many cationic and neutral fluorescent probes are substrates for the enhanced outward drug transport system associated with P388/ADR cells, and cannot be used to probe membrane-potential differences in cells expressing the mdr phenotype. With several dyes, differences in fluorescence intensity were sufficient so that flow cytometry could be used to delineate P388 from P388/ADR and CCRF-CEM from CEM-VLB100. The latter technique may be useful for identifying malignant cell populations expressing multidrug resistance in patients with neoplastic disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan 48201.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kessel
authors.forename: W T
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: Beck
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kukuruga
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Schulz
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D004351:Drug Resistance; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000378:metabolism*; D007941:Leukemia P388 / Q000378:metabolism*; D008564:Membrane Potentials; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D012235:Rhodamines / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D012235:Rhodamines