title: Inhibition of cell growth in culture by quinones.
abstract: Quinones were studied for their growth inhibitory effect on cultured malignant cells. HCT-15 cells derived from human colon carcinoma were used for these experiments. Quinones used were arbutin in the benzoquinone group, juglone and lawsone in the naphthaquinone group, alizarin, emodin, 1,8-dihydroxyanthraquinone, and anthraquinone in the anthraquinone group, and xanthone. Cultured cells were incubated with various concentrations of the quinones for four days in a 5% CO2 incubator, after which cell numbers were counted and significance of differences was analyzed by Student's t test. Anthraquinones and naphthaquinones used in these experiments were more effective than the monocyclic quinone. The 50% suppression dose was less than 12.5 micrograms/ml for them. The number of OH groups seemed to play an important role in the degree of the cell growth inhibition: anthraquinones with 2 or 3 OH groups were more effective than those with no OH group like, 9,10-dioxoanthracene and xanthone. In fact, anthraquinones with no OH group and xanthone were not significantly effective. Flow cytometric histograms revealed a specific pattern; that is, lawsone and juglone in the naphthaquinone group and alizarin and 1,8-dihydroxy-anthraquinone in the anthraquinone group blocked mainly the S phase, and emodin in the anthraquinone group blocked the G1 to S phase of the cell cycle.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Aichi-Gakuin University Hospital, Japan. kamei@dpc.aichi-gakuin.ac.jp
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kamei
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Koide
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kojima
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hashimoto
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hasegawa
mesh_terms: D000880:Anthraquinones / Q000633:toxicity; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000633:toxicity*; D001104:Arbutin / Q000633:toxicity; D002455:Cell Division / Q000187:drug effects*; D003110:Colonic Neoplasms; D006801:Humans; D009285:Naphthoquinones / Q000633:toxicity; D011809:Quinones / Q000633:toxicity*; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured; D014966:Xanthenes / Q000633:toxicity; D044004:Xanthones
chemical_list: D000880:Anthraquinones; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D009285:Naphthoquinones; D011809:Quinones; D014966:Xanthenes; D044004:Xanthones; C010078:alizarin; C009689:xanthone; D001104:Arbutin; C005090:lawsone; C005134:juglone; C004315:danthron