Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (8)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Schuler, M.
Right arrow Articles by Eastmond, D.A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Schuler, M.
Right arrow Articles by Eastmond, D.A.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Mutagenesis, Vol. 14, No. 1, 51-56, January 1999
© 1999 UK Environmental Mutagen Society/Oxford University Press

Noscapine hydrochloride disrupts the mitotic spindle in mammalian cells and induces aneuploidy as well as polyploidy in cultured human lymphocytes

M. Schuler, P. Muehlbauer1, P. Guzzie1 and D.A. Eastmond2

Environmental Toxicology Graduate Program, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521 and 1 Pfizer Inc., Groton, CT 06340, USA

Noscapine hydrochloride is a centrally acting antitussive opium derivative widely used in cough suppressants. Recent studies have reported that noscapine is a potent inducer of polyploidy but not of aneuploidy in vitro. To obtain more comprehensive information about the cytogenetic effects of this compound, we treated cultured human lymphocytes (HPL) and Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells with various concentrations of noscapine hydrochloride. Using a differential staining technique noscapine was shown to disrupt the mitotic spindle at concentrations <5 µg/ml in both cell types. The use of multicolor fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) on noscapine-treated human lymphocytes showed a dose-dependent induction of hyperdiploidy of chromosome 1 but not of chromosomal breakage in the 1cen–q12 region under in vitro conditions, indicating that noscapine is specifically inducing numerical chromosomal aberrations. FISH with probes targeting different chromosomes revealed that noscapine is capable of inducing both polyploidy and true hyperdiploidy. Our results show that noscapine, by disrupting the function of the mitotic spindle, has the ability to induce aneuploidy and not uniquely polyploidy as previously reported. By using these types of molecular cytogenetic techniques, it should be possible to evaluate the ability of noscapine to induce aneuploidy in the upper intestinal tract in vivo.

2 To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +1 909 787 4497; Fax: +1 909 787 3087; Email: eastmond{at}ucrac1.ucr.edu


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 MutagenesisHome page
M. Schuler, P. Muehlbauer, P. Guzzie, and D.A. Eastmond
Noscapine hydrochloride-induced numerical aberrations in cultured human lymphocytes: a comparison of FISH detection methods and multiple end-points
Mutagenesis, May 1, 2003; 18(3): 235 - 242.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.