Adriamycin causes up regulation of epidermal growth factor receptors in actively growing cells.

We have demonstrated a drug-dependent increase in the capacity of HeLa and 3T3 cells, grown in the presence of lethal and sublethal concentrations of adriamycin, to bind epidermal growth factor (EGF). Scatchard analysis ascribes this effect to an increase in the number of binding sites, with little change in affinity. The time course of binding of 125I-EGF is unchanged by adriamycin treatment, in both 3T3 and HeLa cells, at both 0 and 37 degrees C. This increase appears gradually over 3 or 4 days' exposure to the drug and is reversible over a similar period. Although in HeLa cells the increase reaches a maximum of about 4-fold, regardless of cell density, the maximum observed in 3T3 cells, over 100-fold, is seen only at low cell densities. This could be related to the density-dependent growth regulation seen in 3T3 cells, but not in HeLa cells. We suggest that the ability of the anticancer agent adriamycin to alter the cellular response to a growth-regulatory substance may be related to the mechanism of its cytotoxic action.