The effects of aspirin and acetaminophen on tetrahymena pyriformis GL growth and macromolecular synthesis.

The effect of aspirin and acetaminophen on Tetrahymena pyriformis GL is examined in this study. The concentration of drug which inhibited T. pyriformis GL growth in 24 hours, indicated as IC50, was 200 micrograms/ml and 580 micrograms/ml for aspirin and acetaminophen, respectively. Macromolecular incorporation study showed that aspirin at 100 micrograms to 400 micrograms/ml had essentially no effect on all parameters examined. Acetaminophen had a significant (P less than 0.01) suppression of 14C-thymidine, 14C-uridine and 14C-acetate uptake, but no effect on 14C-amino acid uptake at concentrations from 400 micrograms to 1200 micrograms/ml. T. pyriformis GL is a useful eukaryocytic single cell organism for drug action study.