The effect of cisplatin and hydrocortisone co-administration on rat liver chromatin condensation

Abstract

Cisplatin (cis-diammine-dichloro-platinum) is a broad-spectrum anticancer drug widely used for treatment of malignancies. The drug interacts with DNA resulting to intra- and inter-strand cross-links which contribute to cytotoxicity. To prevent nausea, vomiting and inflammation in clinical practice the cisplatin most commonly is co-administrated with hydrocortisone to cancer patients. It is well known that glucocorticoids exert biological action via interaction of hormone-receptor complexes with genomic DNA. To address the question whether co-treatment with cisplatin and hydrocortisone could modulate cisplatin-DNA interaction, the internucleosomal fragmentation of rat liver DNA after treatment of rats with cisplatin and hydrocortisone was investigated. The results of this study indicate that hydrocortisone–cisplatin interaction could prevent loosening of chromatin in internucleosomal chromatin regions induced by cisplatin in 48 hours and might alter the drug cytotoxicity.