Concomitant adsorption and stability of some anthracycline antibiotics.

Using liquid scintillation counting and liquid chromatographic techniques, it has been demonstrated that the anthracycline antibiotics, doxorubicin hydrochloride, N-trifluoroacetyladriamycin-14-valerate, and N-trifluoroacetyladriamycin-14-octanoate, can be strongly absorbed to the walls of containers, depending on the nature of both the container material and the solute. It also has been shown that the esters are unstable in the chemical growth media commonly used in cell culture studies. Both the adsorption and stability effects are suggested as being factors which should be carefully considered in interpretation of the in vitro and perhaps in vivo activities of the anthracycline esters.