Deoxycytidine kinase, thymidine kinase and cytidine deaminase and the formation of Ara-CTP in leukemic cells in different phases of the cell cycle

Abstract In this study we investigated the Ara-CTP-forming capacity of leukemic cells in different phases of the cell cycle. Cells from two leukemic cell lines and leukemic bone marrow cells from patients and rats (BNML model) with acute myelocytic leukemia were separated according to cell cycle phase by means of an albumin density gradient in a specially designed sedimentation chamber. We found that the activity of CdR kinase and Cyt deaminase is much less influenced by cell-cycle phase progression than TdR kinase activity. For the leukemic cell lines HL-60 and BNML-CL/O CdR kinase activity is even independent of cell-cycle phase. In addition, Ara-CTP formation is not restricted to cells in S-phase. Cell cycle phase-independent Ara-CTP formation creates a situation in which cells which are not in S-phase during exposure to Ara-C might undergo the cytotoxic effects of Ara-C as soon as they enter S-phase.