In this study, microcalorimetric measurements were carried out on PK-15 cell line persistently infected by cholera swine fever virus (CSFV) and BHK-21 cell line infected by foot and mouth disease virus (FMDV). The aim of this investigation was to investigate the difference of energy metabolism between the different kinds of virus infections-persistent infection and cytocidal infection. The thermogenesis curves determined by using a LKB 2277 Bioactivity Monitor were significantly different. From these thermogenic curves, the maximum heat production rate Pm and total heat output Q are obtained. The results show that energy metabolism is different between persistent infection and cytocidal infection.

Reactive oxygen species play an important role in the mediation of cell killing. But the mechanistic links between reactive oxygen species (ROS) and cell death remains unclear. There was a speculation that ROS, especially hydroxyl radicals can induce necrosis but not apoptosis in cells treated with copper-1,10-phenanthroline, IICu(OP)2. In this paper, liver carcinoma cell line (Bel-7402) was treated with IICu(OP)2 and its effect was examined by several means. Cells were found to undergo changes characteristic of apoptosis. Hoechst staining showed apoptotic body appeared in the cells induced by IICu(OP)2. When DNA extracted from the cells treated with IICu(OP)2 was analyzed by agarose gel electrophoresis it generated 'ladder' pattern of discontinuousDNAfragments. Sub-G1 peakwas detected in treated cells. Furthermore, two different flowcytometric methods were used, each allowing us to relate the apoptotic cells to the position the cell-cycle position. Apoptosis induced by IICu(OP)2 was limited to G1-phase cells. Using cyclin analysis, the expression of cyclin E in G1 was blocked. Thus, it was concluded that IICu(OP)2 can induceG1-phase specific apoptosis in Bel-7402.

Extremely low frequency (ELF) pulsed-gradient magnetic field (with the maximum intensity of 0.6-2.0 T, gradient of 10-100T • M1, pulse width of 20-200 ms and frequency of 0.16-1.34Hz treatment of mice can inhibit murine malignant tumour growth, as seen from analyses at different hierarchical levels, from organism, organ, to tissue, and down to cell and macromolecules. Such magnetic fields induce apoptosis of cancer cells, and arrest neoangiogenesis, preventing a supply developing to the tumour. The growth of sarcomas might be amenable to such new method of treatment.

Hyperthermia is a useful adjunct in cancer therapy, as it can increase the effectiveness and decrease the toxicity of currently available cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation. In this study we determined the power-time curves of U-937 cell line treated by the combination of hyperthermia and Carmofur by using an LKB 2277 Bioactivity Monitor. The maximal thermal power and the heat production were used to evaluate the antitumor effect. Our results show that the combined treatment of hyperthermia and Carmofur had a synergistic antitumor effect, which is consistent with the apoptosis ratio obtained by TUNEL assay. The results also indicate that the metabolic activity of apoptotic cells is lower than that of normal cells. Thus microcalorimetry is a powerful tool in fields of hyperthermia.

The protonation constants and the stability constants for the formation of copper (II) complex of the ligand [1,4,7] Triazecan-9-ol (L) were presented. Antitumor activity of CuL complex was reported. Preliminary pharmacological tests showed that it had antitumor activity against HXO-RB44 and BEL-7402 cell lines in vitro. Nuclei of [CuL]-stimulated BEL-7402 cells clearly exhibited condensation and break down into chromatin clumps typical of apoptosis. Also it exhibited perturbation effects to BEL-7402 cell lines cycle and further studies showed that it could cleave supercoiled DNA (pBR 322) to nicked and linear DNA.