Effect of induced host anaemia on the viability and radiosensitivity of murine malignant cells in vivo

Abstract

Within 48 hours of the institution of severe phenylhydrazineinduced anaemia in mice bearing ascites tumours or generalised leukaemia, a substantial proportion of the malignant cells disappeared respectively from the peritoneal cavity or infiltrated liver. The results of radiobiological experiments permitting determination of the proportion of viable leukaemia cells which were severely hypoxic and relatively radioresistant in the livers of leukaemic mice, showed that induction of anaemia was associated with a several hundredfold increase in the proportion of such cells. The proportion of hypoxic cells was greatly reduced when the anaemic leukaemic mice were transfused with packed erythrocytes or allowed to breathe oxygen under high pressure. Similar experi - ments with solid sarcomas indicated that a high proportion of the tumour cells were hypoxic in non-anaemic mice breathing air. The hypoxic fraction was not significantly reduced when tumour-bearing mice were made severely anaemic during growth of the tumour and were later transfused. Thus, the hypoxic cells in leukaemic livers and those in solid tumours are markedly different in their capacity for oxygenation following the induction of relative hyperoxaemia.