Preferential sensitivity of specific genes in chromatin to the action of bleomycin in different cell types was investigated using restriction enzyme digestion of DNA from drug-treated nuclei in combination with the Southern blotting procedure. The results show that the highly active ovalbumin gene in laying hen oviduct nuclei is more sensitive than the inactive globin gene to the digestion by b...

Pulmonary fibrosis is characterized by excessive deposition of extracellular matrix components in the alveolar space, which hampers normal respiration process. Pathophysiological enzymes, glycoprotein moieties and matrix degrading lysosomal hydrolases are key markers and play a crucial role in the progression of fibrosis. Bleomycin is an anti-neoplastic drug, used for the treatment of various t...

Oxidative stress is involved in the pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis, therefore antioxidants may be of therapeutic value. Clinical work indicates that N-acetylcysteine (NAC) may be beneficial in this disease. The activity of this antioxidant was examined on bleomycin-induced lung damage, mucus secretory cells hyperplasia and mucin Muc5ac gene expression in rats. NAC (3 mmol x kg(-1) x day(-1)...

BACKGROUND Pulmonary fibrosis is an untreatable, fatal disease characterized by excess deposition of extracellular matrix and inflammation. Although the etiology of pulmonary fibrosis is unknown, recent studies have implicated dysregulated immune responses and wound healing. Since n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs) may beneficially modulate immune responses in a variety of inflammatory...

Cellular senescence is a state of irreversible growth arrest. In this paper the authors examined whether bleomycin, an agent that causes pulmonary fibrosis, induces the senescence of alveolar epithelial cells. Type II-like alveolar epithelial (A549) cells or rat primary type II cells were exposed to bleomycin and then evaluated for markers of cellular senescence. Bleomycin was also administered...

Plasma from patients with iron overload resulting from idiopathic hemochromatosis contains nontransferrin-bound iron, measurable by the bleomycin, assay. During venesection therapy, the concentration of bleomycin iron declines in a way highly correlated with plasma ferritin concentrations. Even when patients had been venesected to give very low total plasma iron concentrations and high transfer...

Bleomycin is an effective drug used in the therapy of many malignant diseases. Such toxicities as fever, chills, and pulmonary fibrosis are well known to occur following administration of this drug. A rare fatal hyperpyrexial response has also been noted with this agent. We describe a case of fatal hyperthermia after an injection of bleomycin. Unlike earlier reported cases, our patient develope...

Bleomycin is a commonly used chemotherapeutic agent known to cause extensive DNA damage. In this paper we show that bleomycin inhibits ribonucleotide reductase activity in mouse L-cells. The effectiveness of the drug is a result of its metal-chelating properties which enable it to inactivate the iron containing M2 subunit of the enzyme. A hydroxyurea-resistant mouse L-cell line was used to show...

Despite extensive structural dissimilarities, iron . bleomycin complexes and heme-containing oxygenases display remarkable similarities in binding oxygen antagonists and in spectral properties deriving from bound iron. Fe(II)-bleomycin reversibly forms a complex with either CO or isocyanide (lambda max = 384 and 497 nm, respectively), either of which interfere with its oxygen-dependent cleavage...