Relationship between sensitivity to 4'-(9-acridinylamino)methanesulfon-m-anisidide and DNA topoisomerase II in a cold-sensitive cell-cycle mutant of a murine mastocytoma cell line.

The cold-sensitive (proliferating at 39.5 degrees C, reversibly arrested in GI-phase at 33 degrees C) cell-cycle mutant 21-Fb of the murine mastocytoma cell line P815 was used to study the effect of amsacrine on non-cycling cells. The sensitivity of arrested 21-Fb cells decreased less than 2-fold in cell survival experiments when compared to proliferating cells. In contrast, DNA breakage and stimulation of protein-DNA complex formation in intact or lysed cells was reduced approx. 10-fold in arrested cells and DNA topoisomerase II activity in arrested cells was only 5% of the activity in proliferating cells. Thus, there was no correlation between cell survival and DNA damage or DNA topoisomerase II activity in drug-treated cells.