Methotrexate

Biological Activity

Methotrexate(WR19039; CL14377) can interfere with the growth of certain cells of the body, especially cells that reproduce quickly, such as cancer cells, bone marrow cells, and skin cells.in vitro: In normal T cells, Methotrexate (MTX) produced a dose-dependent reduction in de novo adenosine and guanosine pools with maximal effects (>50%) at 1 microM MTX. In CEM cells, de novo purine synthesis was almost completely blocked by 1 microM MTX. Total purine pools were also reduced in both cell types after MTX treatment. JAR cells underwent apoptosis after exposure to 0.1-2.5 microg/ml MTX for 48 h. Decreased mitochondrial membrane potential was observed both by fluorescence microscopy and FCM. The activation of caspase-9 was increased 4.35+/-0.76-fold in MTX-incubated JAR, while there was no obvious change in the activation of caspase-8. in vivo: Three, four and five weeks after consecutive administration of MTX (3 mg/kg/day), hydroxyproline content in the lung tissues increased significantly to about 2 times higher that of the control level. MTX was administered intraperitoneally (ip) at the doses of 5, 10, 20 and 40 mg/kg to mice (20-25 g) weekly once (wk) for 5 and 10 weeks. The animals were sacrificed 1 week after receiving the last treatment of MTX. The germ cell toxicity was evaluated using testes weight (wt), sperm count, sperm head morphology, sperm comet assay, histology, TUNEL and halo assay in testis. MTX treatment significantly reduced the sperm count and increased the occurrence of sperm head abnormalities in a dose dependent manner.

Published experimental findings depend on the model and assay conditions. They do not guarantee equivalent performance in every application. For laboratory research use only.