Cytotoxicity of a series of ferrocene-containing beta-diketones.

Background: Oxidised ferrocenium compounds often possess antineoplastic activity. In contrast, reduced ferrocene derivatives frequently only show activity if cell components can oxidise them inside cells to the ferrocenium species. Ferrocene compounds having the lowest formal reduction potential are normally expected to be the most cytotoxic.

Antineoplastic activity of a series of ferrocene-containing alcohols.

Background: Often potentially good chemotherapeutic drugs find limited clinical use due to the many negative medical and physical side-effects they may exhibit. To combat these negative side-effects, new antineoplastic materials are continuously being synthesised and evaluated. Ferrocene-containing compounds under certain conditions may show appreciable anticancer activity.

Hepatocyte function in a radial-flow bioreactor using a perfluorocarbon oxygen carrier.

Unlabelled: The aims of this study were, first, to indicate the metabolic activity of hepatocytes in a radial-flow polyurethane foam matrix bioreactor relative to monocultures, and second, to evaluate the effect on the hepatocytes of including a synthetic perfluorocarbon (PFC) oxygen carrier to the recirculating medium. The efficient O2-carrying ability of PFCs may be beneficial to bioreactors employed in stressed cellular environments. Thus, they may also be useful in the treatment of an acute liver failure patient with a bioartificial liver support system (BALSS).

Cytotoxicity of a series of water-soluble mixed valent diruthenium tetracarboxylates.

Background: Mixed-valent diruthenium tetracarboxylate complexes were shown to have slight antineoplastic activity against P388 leukemia cell lines. However these complexes suffered from poor water-solubility, which may have detrimentally affected their activity.

Materials And Methods: Mixed-valent diruthenium tetracarboxylates of the type [Ru2(O2CR)4(L)2] (PF6) with L = imidazole, 1-methylimidazole and H2O when R = CH3, L = ethanol when R = Fc (ferrocenyl) or Fc-CH=CH- and of the type M3[Ru2(O2CR)4(H2O)2]4H2O, M = Na+ when R = m-C6H4SO3- and M = K+ when R = p-C6H4SO3-, were tested for cytotoxicity against HeLa and multidrug resistant CoLo 320DM human cancer cell lines.