Bleomycin is widely used for treating several types of human tumors as well as a variety of experimental tumors. The ability of this antibiotic to bind and to damage DNA has been proposed to be responsible for its antitumor effect. Bleomycin is also a good chelator for several metals, e.g., iron, copper, and others. Bleomycin:metal complexes have been investigated in detail particularly for the...

The interactions between bleomycin and X-ray damage and repair have been examined in rat and human tumor cells. Bleomycin itself indices extensive DNA single-strand breaks but does not appear to inhibit the repair of X-ray-induced DNA single-strand breaks. Quantitative analysis of these interactions is complicated by the retention of active bleomycin within cells that remains capable of further...

Bleomycin was observed to inhibit DNA and protein syntheses in intact Escherichia coli, Ehrlich carcinoma and HeLa cells. DNA synthesis was more profoundly affected than protein synthesis. RNA synthesis was not significantly suppressed by the antibiotic. The activity of bleomycin was highly dependent on the number of cells and on the concentration of phosphate in the medium, being more pronounc...

Angiotensin-converting enzyme is involved in apoptosis of alveolar epithelial cells (Wang R, Zagariya A, Ang E, Ibarra-Sunga O, and Uhal BD. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol 277: L1245-L1250, 1999). This study tested the ability of the angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor captopril or the caspase inhibitor Z-Val-Ala-Asp-fluoromethylketone (ZVAD-fmk) to block alveolar epithelial cell apopto...

The biochemical basis for bleomycin-induced pulmonary toxicity was studied in vitro and in vivo with an improved HPLC system. The in vitro metabolism of bleomycin A2 to desamido-bleomycin A2 was measured in tissue homogenates from a species sensitive (mice) and relatively resistant (rabbits) to the pulmonary fibrogenic properties of bleomycin. Lung tissue from mice lacked detectable bleomycin h...

Glioblastoma multiforme is a fatal malignancy of the central nervous system, demanding new methods of treatment. The combination of a calmodulin antagonist with bleomycin has shown synergistic activity in several preclinical models and has been evaluated in a Phase I clinical trial. Since phenothiazines reach high concentrations in the central nervous system, and bleomycin has been reported to ...

The present study was undertaken to investigate the effects of treatment with the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor enalapril in a mouse model of pulmonary hypertension induced by bleomycin. Bleomycin-induced lung injury in mice is mediated by enhanced tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF) expression in the lung, which determines the murine strain sensitivity to bleomycin, and murine st...

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been shown to attenuate pulmonary damage induced by bleomycin-based anticancer treatments, but the influence of bleomycin on the stem cells themselves remains largely unknown. Here, we demonstrate that human bone marrow-derived MSCs are relatively sensitive to bleomycin exposure compared to adult fibroblasts. MSCs revealed increased levels of apoptosis after b...

The chemotherapeutic agent bleomycin induces pulmonary fibrosis through the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are thought to contribute to cellular damage and pulmonary injury. We hypothesized that bleomycin activates oxidative stress response pathways and regulates cellular glutathione (GSH). Bovine pulmonary artery endothelial cells exposed to bleomycin exhibit growth arrest ...

background: the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of methanolic extract of achillea millefolium l. (mea) on the antiproliferative activity of bleomycin on human prostate cancer and normal skin cells. materials and methods: human prostate cancer cell (du-145) and human non-malignant fibroblast cell (hfff2) were treated with mea at various concentrations ( 20, 100, 500, 1000 and 200...