Relationship between glutathione levels and drug or radiation sensitivities in human gastric cancer cell lines in vitro.

Permanent cell lines and clones established from an untreated patient (AGS cells) with gastric carcinoma, and from a similar patient who had been treated with Adriamycin, 5FU and cytoxan (SII cells) were used in a study that compared their drug and radiation survival sensitivities to their glutathidine (GSH) values. The SII parental cell line was more resistant than the AGS cells in vitro to chlorambucil, ACT D, Adria, Bleo, and X-rays. This greater resistance was positively correlated with GSH values that were 1.77 times higher than in the AGS parental cell line. By contrast the SII parental cells were more sensitive than the AGS cells to MeCCNU and Melphalan. The drug and radiation sensitivities expressed among the clones of the two cell lines were heterogeneous and did not correlate with their GSH values.