Sensitivity of Yoshida sarcoma lines resistant to nitrogen mustard ( H N , ) was not enhanced by pretreatment in vitro with SH-blocking agents such as 2,2'-dithiodipyridine. This fact seems to indicate that content of cellular sulfhydryl groups did not play a great role in acquisition of resistance to HN,. No difference was observed between the sensitive and resistant lines in retention rate of H N , bound to D N A of the cells during incubation of the cells in an HN,-free medium. These results suggested no considerable difference in the ability to repair D N A in both lines. Further evidence was added for suppressed transport through the cell membranes of the resistant lines. Damage to cell membranes was proved by vital staining when a concentration of SH-blocking agents in the pretreatment reached a certain level, and the binding rate of H N , to D N A of the resistant lines was recovered almost to the same level of the sensitive line by this pretreatment.However, the binding rate of the sensitive line was not changed by pretreatment with the blocking agents at any concentrations.The following results were reported in our previous paper on the mechanism of acquired resistance of Yoshida sarcoma to nitrogen mustard (Inaba and Sakurai, 1971).(1) There was a proportional relationship between the rate of binding of nitrogen mustard (HN,) with the cellular constituents such as DNA and the resistance index when the cells were incubated in vitro in a medium containing HN,. The higher the resistance index, the lower was the binding rate.(2) The uptake of HN, by the cells through the membrane was found to be greater in the sensitive line than in the resistant lines, but the rate of uptake was not proportional to the resistance index, two resistant lines having indices of 100 and 1,000, respectively, showing a similar rate of uptake.From these results it appeared that a decrease in membrane transport of resistant lines did not totally reflect the decrease in the rate of binding of HN, to DNA. The results suggested the possibility of another mechanism of resistance; for example, enhancement of HN,-inactivating capacity and DNA-repairing activity of the cells of resistant lines. The present paper deals with further experiments on the suppressed membrane transport of the resistant cells, and inactivation of HN, by the cellular sulfhydryl groups. A brief survey on the loss of SH-HNz bound to DNA of sensitive and resistant cells is also reported.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
Resistant sublines of Yoshida sarcomaYSc-,(, and YSc-,4, having resistance indices of 2,500, were used as resitant sublines. These cell lines were obtained by successive contact of YSc-,, used in the previous work with HN,. Chemical Company (Osaka, Japan) and Tokyo Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan), respectively. 6,6'-Dithiodinicotinic acid (CPDS) was synthesized in our laboratory following the method reported by Fox and Gibas (1958) and identified by melting point, infra-red, and ultraviolet spectra. 3H-Labelled nitrogen mustard (HN,) was prepared by ...