Studies on the effect of bleomycin on Trypanosoma gambiense.

The antibiotic bleomycin inhibits nuclear duplication and causes deformation of the nucleus without any effect on the kinetoplast of Trypanosoma gambiense. Consequently it induces the anucleate form, not the dyskinetoplastic form. Studies showed that in many respects the effect of bleomycin on trypanosomes was very similar to that of neocarzinostatin. Analysis of DNA by CsCl density gradient centrifugation indicated that bleomycin inhibits DNA synthesis in the nucleus but not that in the kinetoplast. Bleomycin also induced excess formation of pellicular microtubules and disorderly arrangement of the axonemal and pellicular microtubules.