Dexamethasone binding to chromatin, inhibition of in vitro RNA synthesis, and therapeutic effect on human lymphosarcoma.

A very high degree of specific dexamethasone binding to chromatin and a marked in vitro inhibition of RNA-synthesizing capacity of purified lymphoma cell nuclei was found to correlate closely with the very strong cytolethal effect of glucocorticoids on lymphoma cells (in this case neither B- nor T-cells) of a young patient, whose condition rapidly and unexpectedly deteriorated after a total dose fo 90 mg of Prednisone given during a two day period; and in spite of prophylactic antihyperuricaemia treatment, the patient subsequently died. In this case the amount of glucocorticoid bound specifically by lymphoma chromatin was about 400% larger than is normally found in chromatin isolated from normal human thymus cells in persons on this age. The in vitro inhibition of RNA-Synthesizing activity measured with the aggregate enzyme and with isolated nuclei from lymphoma cell-nuclei by dexamethasone correlates closely to the specific dexamethasone binding capacity of chromatin. Thus a better prediction of the therapeutic effect of such lymphosarcoma cells to glucocorticoid may be possible.