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British Journal of Cancer logoLink to British Journal of Cancer
. 1990 Jul;62(1):33–36. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1990.224

The effect of L-dopa on the potentiation of radiation damage to human melanoma cells.

I Yamada 1, S Seki 1, S Ito 1, S Suzuki 1, O Matsubara 1, T Kasuga 1
PMCID: PMC1971730  PMID: 2390479

Abstract

Since L-dopa (L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine) has been shown to possess a selective toxicity for melanoma cells both in vitro and in vivo, we have examined the combined effect of L-dopa and radiation on human melanoma cells. It was found that the combined use of L-dopa potentiated the radiation cytotoxicity to HMV-I human melanoma cells, compared with the response seen in non-melanoma HeLa S3 cells. In HMV-I cells during their exponential phase, L-dopa decreased the shoulder width of the radiation survival curve significantly. In addition, L-dopa significantly inhibited the repair of potentially lethal damage (PLD) in HMV-I cells during their plateau phase. When the distributions of the G1, S, and G2-M cells were measured 24 h after combined L-dopa and radiation treatment, there was significant increase in the accumulation of cells in the G2-M phase of the cell cycle, compared to cells that received either L-dopa or radiation treatment only.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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