Blockage of prereplicative progression by cytochalasin D in serum-stimulated GC-7 cells.

When growth-arrested GC-7 cells, a cell line from African green monkey kidney, are stimulated with 10% calf serum, they enter S phase 14-15 h later. Cytochalasin D at 0.6 micrograms/ml blocks the entrance into S phase, and inhibits, though only partially, the increase in protein synthesis after serum stimulation. Since partial inhibition of protein synthesis by cycloheximide interferes with accumulation of labile proteins and thus blocks the entrance of serum-stimulated cells into S phase, the effects of these two inhibitors are compared. Cytochalasin D at lower concentrations reduced the rate of entry into S phase without affecting the length of the prereplicative phase, whereas cycloheximide extended the prereplicative phase dose dependently without affecting the rate of entry into S phase. Cytochalasin D affected neither individual [35S]methionine-labeled spots on two-dimensional polyacrylamide-gel nor degradation of cellular proteins. These results indicate that cytochalasin D, though it interferes with protein synthesis, blocks prereplicative progression of serum-stimulated GC-7 cells in a different manner than cycloheximide.