THE INFLUENCE OF IRON-DEXTRAN COMPLEX ON THE STRAIN L FIBROBLAST

Iron-dextran complex has been found to be carcinogenic in animals. Richmond (9, 10), Haddow (3), and Haddow and Horning (4) have reported that subcutaneous injections of massive doses of this complex in the rat and mouse have given rise to sarcomas originating from iron-laden connective and reticuloendothelial tissues. It was thought that it would be interesting to grow the mouse subcutaneous fibroblast in culture in the presence of massive doses of the iron-dextran complex. In such cultures the morphology, growth, and metabolism, particularly the respiration, could be studied. The experimental evidence to be reported here are the changes which have occurred in these cultures during the first 3 months in which they were grown in medium containing iron-dextran complex.