Influence of hydroxystearic acid on in vitro cell proliferation.

Lipid peroxidation products have recently been proposed among the possible regulators of tumour cell growth. According to our current working hypothesis, the greatly diminished content of such products in tumour cells might relieve the inhibition of cell growth thus leading to uncontrolled proliferation. Hydroperoxy- and hydroxy derivatives of long chain fatty acids have been identified and determined in normal and tumour cells. Among these, hydroxystearic acid (HSA) has been shown to have a different cytostatic and cytotoxic effect when administered to murine lung carcinoma cells or to human colon tumour cells. It interferes with cell cycle kinetics, blocking the murine cells in G2-M and the human ones in G0-G1. The molecular target of HSA in both cell lines has been shown to be the cdc2 kinase complex. The results so far obtained in tumour as long as in normal highly proliferating cells do not exclude a potential future use of this class of compounds as selective anti tumour drugs.