Evaluation of anticancer drugs by lymphocyte electrophoresis.

The spleen cells in tumor-bearing and normal mice treated with Krestin (PSK), mitomycin C (MMC) or adriamycin (ADM) were analyzed by cell electrophoresis and flow microcytometry. In normal mice, the splenocyte electrophoretic mobility histogram was observed as a bimodal pattern, and low and high mobility cells (LMC and HMC) corresponded with B and T cells, respectively. In sarcoma-180-bearing mice, an intermediate mobility peak (IMC) appeared between the low and high peaks. Although every anticancer drug depressed the IMC when the tumor was cured, MMC reduced the absolute number of splenic Ig+ and Thy-1+ cells, and ADM injured Ig+ cells in normal as well as in tumor-bearing mice. PSK, however, depressed splenomegaly by tumor-burden in spite of a slight increase in splenocytes of normal mice. In a previous paper, it was reported that the thymocyte mobility histogram was restored to a normal pattern by treatment with PSK in tumor-bearers, while it was made more abnormal by treatment with MMC because of injury to cortical thymocytes. From these results, it may be considered that an anticancer drug which restored the splenocyte mobility histogram to a normal pattern without damages to thymocytes is preferable for cancer therapy.