A relationship between multidrug resistance and growth-state dependent cytotoxicity of the lysosomotropic detergent N-dodecylimidazole

Multidrug resistance (MDR) in cultured cells and tumors is associated with overproduction of P-glycoprotein, a plasma membrane efflux pump normally present at very low levels. The cytotoxic action of N-dodecylimidazole (C12-Im), a lysosomotropic detergent, on cultured cells was previously shown to be strongly dependent on growth state, with rapidly growing cells being most sensitive and confluent cells most resistant. We show here that this may be due to a growth dependent increase in cellular P-glycoprotein activity. Both verapamil and nifedipine, structurally unrelated P-glycoprotein inhibitors, increased markedly the sensitivity of CHO fibroblasts to killing by C12-Im; the increase was greater in confluent than in growing cells. Also, verapamil inhibitable 3H-daunomycin efflux was more efficient from confluent than from subconfluent cells. The MDR cell line CH(R)C5 differed from all cell lines previously examined in that it did not show a growth-dependent decrease in C12-Im sensitivity, and sensitivity was not increased by verapamil or nifedipine. We suggest that a growth-dependent increase in MDR activity is a general property of cultured cells, except for those specifically overexpressing P-glycoprotein.