Degree Name
MS (Master of Science)
Program
Biology
Date of Award
12-2008
Committee Chair or Co-Chairs
Allan Forsman
Committee Members
Hugh A. Miller III, Ranjan N. Chakraborty
Abstract
Chemotherapy is the most common cancer treatment. Traditionally, platinum-based drugs are used in chemotherapy. More recently, researchers have focused on ruthenium based compounds as a substitute for the platinum compounds. Ruthenium-based compounds appear to be less toxic to healthy cells than traditional platinum-based compounds. In this study, 7 ruthenium-based compounds were tested on HT-29 (colon) and MCF-7 (breast) human cancer cell lines with the specific aim of determining whether or not any of the ruthenium-based compounds exhibited cytotoxic properties. In addition, levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) production were tested in supernate from the cancer cells treated with various ruthenium-based compounds to determine whether or not the ruthenium-based compounds had an effect their VEGF production. Our results indicate that none of the ruthenium based compounds tested had a cytotoxic effect on the cancer cell lines; however, some of the compounds did exhibit inhibition of cell growth. Results further indicate an initial decrease in VEGF production in the cell lines treated with the ruthenium compounds but that this effect was compound-cell line specific.
Document Type
Thesis - unrestricted
Recommended Citation
Brown, Katie Beth, "Cytotoxic Effects of Ruthenium Compounds on Human Cancer Cell Lines." (2008). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 1992. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1992
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.