Modification of tirapazamine-induced cytotoxicity in combination with mild hyperthermia and/or nicotinamide: reference to effect on quiescent tumour cells.

C3H/He and Balb/c mice bearing SCC VII or EMT6/KU tumours received continuous administration of 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU) for 5 days to label all proliferating (P) cells. The tumours were locally heated at 40 degrees C for 60 min and/or the tumour-bearing mice received intraperitoneal injection of nicotinamide, and then tirapazamine (TPZ) was injected intraperitoneally. Sixty minutes after TPZ injection, the tumours were excised, minced and trypsinized. The tumour cell suspensions were incubated with cytochalasin-B (a cytokinesis-blocker), and the micronucleus (MN) frequency in cells without BrdU labelling (quiescent (Q) cells) was determined using immunofluorescence staining for BrdU. The MN frequency in total (P+Q) tumour cells was determined from the tumours that were not pretreated with BrdU. The cytotoxicity of TPZ was evaluated in terms of the frequency of induced micronuclei in binuclear tumour cells (= MN frequency). In both tumour systems, the MN frequencies of Q cells were greater than those of total tumour cell populations. Mild heat treatment elevated the MN frequency in total and Q cells in both tumour systems, but the effect was more marked in Q cells. In total cells, mild heat treatment increased the MN frequency in EMT6/KU tumour cells more markedly than in SCC VII tumour cells. In contrast, in both tumour systems, nicotinamide decreased the MN frequency in both cell populations, with a greater influence on the total cells. The combination of TPZ and mild heat treatment may be useful for sensitizing tumour cells in vivo, including Q cells.