FAS Abstracts 2004 Meeting Page

Medical Sciences (MED): MED-15

|search by author| |return to MED 2004| |return to FAS 2004|

Differential uptake of fluorescent polyamine conjugates in A375 melanoma cells.  H. CARIAS and O. PHANSTIEL.  Dept. of Chemistry, Univ. of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816.  The polyamine transporter (PAT) provides a means for rapidly-proliferating cells to internalize exogenous polyamines necessary for growth.  A cytotoxic fluorescent marker, anthracene, was conjugated to a series of polyamine vectors. The uptake of 10 µM solutions of each conjugate into A375 cells was monitored by fluorescence microscopy to relate molecular structure to PAT mediated uptake. The conjugate with the longest polyamine sequence (e.g., Ant-4,4,4-tetraamine conjugate) was found to localize primarily around the cell membrane of detached cells and not within the cell; whereas the other compounds tested showed a greater degree of internalization in detached cells.  These differences were not evident in attached cells; wherein all the conjugates appeared to be internalized to the same extent.