The effect of alkyl-lysophospholipids on tritiated thymidine incorporation and clonogenicity in vitro of normal and leukemic human cells.

Alkyl-lysophospholipids are analogues of 2-lysophosphatidylcholine which have been reported to have selective antitumor activity. A survey of the in vitro activity of racemic 1-octadecyl-2-methoxy-glycero-3 phosphorylcholine on in vitro clonogenicity in soft agar and tritiated thymidine incorporation was conducted on bone marrow specimens from a series of patients with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) and chronic myelocytic leukemia (CML) and hematologically normal individuals. A dose- and time-dependent inhibition of colony formation and thymidine incorporation was observed in the normal and leukemic specimens. No selective effect of the compound could be demonstrated under the conditions employed in these studies.