Abstract
WE have recently described an electro-chemical method of measuring the oxygen tension in the fluid phase of serum agar cultures of bone marrow flecks1. Oxygen tension decreased, at first fairly quickly and then more slowly over a period of three days. This was ascribed to the utilization of oxygen by the surviving cells. In this communication we describe some preliminary experiments upon the effect of amethopterin and 6-mercaptopurine on the oxygen tension pattern of similar cultures. At the beginning of the experiments the culture fluid was equilibrated with air containing 5 per cent carbon dioxide; the carbon dioxide was required to keep the pH. of the fluid in the physiological range. After a number of hours the fluid was replaced either with fresh medium alone, or with medium containing the drugs. As this fluid was also equilibrated with the air–carbon dioxide mixture, the oxygen tension rose but not usually to the starting level. This may have been due to the mixing of the fresh medium with the relatively anoxic serum agar also present in the culture chamber. Thereafter, in the normal controls the oxygen tension continued to fall until the experiment was concluded. This is illustrated by the control curve seen in Fig. 1.
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Davis, J. M. G., and Woodliff, H. J., Blood (in the press).
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WOODLIFF, H., DAVIS, J. Effect of Amethopterin and 6-Mercaptopurine on the Pattern of Oxygen Tension Measurements in the Fluid Phase of Serum Agar Cultures of Bone Marrow Flecks. Nature 185, 477 (1960). https://doi.org/10.1038/185477a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/185477a0
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