In vivo and in vitro research on the biological effects of deuterium-depleted water: 1. Influence of deuterium-depleted water on cultured cell growth.

Deuterium depleted-water (DDW) is a new available tool for decreasing deuterium concentration in the environment of cells in culture. Several types of established cell lines, both normal and neoplastic were grown in culture media dissolved with DDW and compared with the same strains, in the same amounts, grown in media dissolved with normal distilled water. Naive mice splenocytes were grown, under stimulation with proliferation triggers, like bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and Concanavalin A (ConA) in the same conditions. The growth and proliferation were estimated using the MTT assay. Both established cell types and explanted splenocytes in the DDW-media had a significantly higher growth rate than cell cultured in normal media. In an attempt to identify the membrane mechanisms involved in the growth stimulation by DDW, the membrane proton transporters Na+/H+ antiporter and H+/K+ATP-ase were inhibited with their selective blockers amiloride and respectively lansoprazole. The results, however incomplete, point towards a lack of involvement of the Na+/H+ antiporter and a possible implication of the H+/K+ATP-ase.