Characteristics of four Friend leukemia cell sublines resistant to adriamycin.

Resistance of Friend murine erythroleukemia cells was induced or selected by continuous stepwise exposure to adriamycin (ADM). The resistance index (R.I.) varied with different "mdr type" drugs, even when the compounds were closely related as ADM and daunorubicin (DNR). The cell uptake of anthracycline, evaluated by flow cytometry (FCM), was better correlated with the R.I. than the HPLC assessment. The quantitative cytology showed nuclear changes (size and color distribution); all the modifications were in part dependent on the degree of resistance. This study showed that the graded resistant sublines differed in their resistant phenotypes apart from their different degree of resistance.