Effects of polyvalent cobalt salts on human cells in tissue culture.

Trivalent and hexavalent cobalt complexes have been tested to determine their ability to produce morphological changes in two different human cell cultures. Aortic intimal cells which produce mucopolysaccharides in vitro prove to be more susceptible than the nonmucopolysaccharide producing HeLa strain. This effect seems to be related to the reaction of polyanions such as ribonucleic acid, deoxyribonucleic acid, and chondroitin sulfate, with the complex cobalt salts.