SEM observations on the effect of anthracycline drugs on cultured newborn rat cardiomyocytes.

The effect of two anthracyclines-doxorubicin hydrochloride (adriamycin) and 4'-epidoxorubicin (epirubicin) and an anthracenedione (novantrone) on the contractibility and surface ultrastructure of newborn rat cardiomyocytes cultured for five days was examined. While the beating rate of the cells was affected only by the anthracyclines, an alteration of the sarcolemma, disruption of the slender processes and swelling of the nuclei and/or the cells was observed following incubation with each of the three drugs for two hours. However, the damage induced by adriamycin was more pronounced than that induced by the other two drugs, when doses extrapolated from those accepted as therapeutic were compared.