Use of fluorescent dyes as molecular probes for the study of multidrug resistance.

Fluorescence microscopy has shown that 18 different fluorescent dyes, staining various intracellular structures in transformed hamster fibroblasts (DM-15), did not stain or stained weakly multidrug-resistant cells selected from DM-15 by colchicine. Reduced staining by fluorescent dyes was characteristic also of five other tested multidrug-resistant cell lines of hamster and mouse origin, selected by actinomycin D, colcemid, rubomycin, and ruboxyl. The intensity of staining of two revertant cell lines was similar to that of parental sensitive cells. All tested inhibitors of multidrug resistance, including weak detergent, metabolic inhibitors, calcium channel blockers, calmodulin inhibitors, and reserpine, restored normal staining of multidrug-resistant cells. The dyes accumulated in resistant cells in presence of these inhibitors left the cells several minutes after the removal of the inhibitor from the incubation medium. Sensitive cells retained the dyes for several hours. The efflux of the dyes from resistant cells is an active process since it occurred even in the presence of the dyes in the incubation medium. The efflux could be blocked by all tested inhibitors of multidrug resistance and it is possibly a basic mechanism of the reduced staining of resistant cells. These data support the idea that multidrug resistance is based on active nonspecific efflux of the drugs and indicate that the simple procedure of cell staining can be used for the detection of resistant cells and further study of the phenomenon of multidrug resistance.