Cellular pharmacokinetics of aclacinomycin A in cultured L1210 cells. Comparison with daunorubicin and doxorubicin.

Aclacinomycin, which is more lipophilic than daunorubicin and doxorubicin, is taken up and released more rapidly and extensively by L1210 cells. After 5 h of incubation 91% of aclacinomycin is found in the nuclei of L1210 cells and the drug present in the post-nuclear fraction is distributed between the lysosomes and the cytosol. After an incubation of 5 h aclacinomycin decreases the density of the lysosomes. This effect is not observed either with doxorubicin or daunorubicin or when the cells are incubated with aclacinomycin for only 30 min.