Effect of lindane on mouse peritoneal macrophages.

Among the effects of lindane in vitro on mouse peritoneal macrophages, the inhibition of uridine incorporation correlated with the reduction of intracellular uridine pool was the most pronounced. This decrease was significant at a concentration of 10(-4) M after 12 h of treatment. The rate of leucine incorporation did not show any change during the 24-h study. The decrease in pinocytosis rate and acid phosphatase activity occurred with lindane concentrations superior to 10(-4) M or after treatment of more than 12 h. Pinocytosis inhibition may have been associated with cytoplasm vacuolation. The high lindane doses necessary to inhibit some of these macrophage functions belong to the range of concentrations exerting biological effects unrelated to its insecticidal effects, which involves stereochemical specificity. The effects of lindane on mouse peritoneal macrophages, similar to the effects of anesthetics, seemed to be determined by its lipophilicity, which may exert disordering effects in the lipid domains of the membrane. Such perturbations could involve changes in the conformation of transport sites as well as in the integrity of the membrane and cytoskeleton structures which govern the processes of pinocytosis and lysosomal fusion.