The effect of the plant cell inhibitor propachlor (alpha-chloro-N-isopropyl-acetanilide) on the cell cycle of L1210 cells as evaluated by flow cytometry.

Previously it was reported that the herbicide propachlor (alpha-chloro-N-isopropyl-acetanilide) has a strong inhibitory effect on the proliferation of L1210 mouse leukemia cells. It is now demonstrated that propachlor treatment causes L1210 cells to accumulate in the G1 phase as determined by flow cytometric analysis. This effect of propachlor is dose-dependent with more than 90% of G1 cells accumulating at 10 microM. Kinetic experiments demonstrated that the accumulation of cells in G1 starts in about 10 hours, and increased for up to about 44 hours of incubation with 10 microM propachlor. Treated cells can be revised to a normal DNA distribution by removing propachlor.