The anti-tumour activity of 20 complexes of di-and tri-organotin(iv) has been tested in vivo in P-388 leukaemic mice. The complexes include SnPh,(CysOS) [CysOS = ~-cysteinate(Z-)], SnR,( Pen) (H,Pen = DL-penicillamine; R = Me, Bun, or Ph), the anions [SnR,(SCH,CH,S0,),]2-(R = Me, Et, Bun, or Ph), SnMe,( PhCO-GlyO), (PhCO-GlyO = N-benzoylglycinate), N-substituted glycinates of SnR,(R = M e or Bun), SnBu",(put), (Hput = purine-6-thiol), SnR,(put) (R = Me, Bun, or Ph), and (SnPhJ,( put),. The complex tris( L-cysteinato) bismuth (111) has been investigated also, for comparison purposes. The results are discussed in connection with the structural characteristics, available t o date, of the complexes in solution phases.Investigations on the anti-tumour activity of organotin(1v) compounds date from 1929.' Up to 1980, the United States National Cancer Institute (N.C.I.) tested 1434 tin compounds, 170 of which were found to be active;, interest in this field still persist^,^-^ even in the pharmaceutical i n d u ~t r y . ~ As a part of our project dealing with the study of the interaction of tin species with biological systems as well as of their biochemical and pharmacological properties, and as a continuation of our previous studies on diorganotin(1v)glycylglycinates and -adeninates, we have investigated the antitumour properties of the title compounds, mainly to obtain further information on structure-activity relationships for amino-acid and purine complexes. Preliminary results are reported and discussed in this paper.

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A method is described for quantitative study of the flux of cells through the cell cycle phases in in vitro systems perturbed by chemicals, such as chemotherapeutic agents. The method utilizes cell count and the flow cytometric technique of bromodeoxyuridine (BrdUrd) labeling, according to an optimized strategy. Cells are exposed to BrdUrd during the last minutes of drug treatment and fixed for analysis at 0,1/3T,, 2/3T,, T,, and T, + TG1 recovery times, where T,, TG1, T, are the mean durations of phases S and G1 and of the whole cycle of control cells. As an example of application of the proposed procedure, a kinetic study of the effect of l-(2-chloroethyl)-l-nitrosourea (CNU) on the L1210 cell cycle is described. Simple data analysis, requiring only a pocket calculator, showed that cells in phases G1 and G2M at the end of a 1 h treatment with 1 pg/ml CNU were fully able to leave these phases but were destined to remain blocked in the following G2M phase (G1 for a minority of them). We also found that cells initially in S phase were slightly delayed in completing their S phase and that 50% of them remained temporarily blocked in the subsequent G2M phase, irrespective of their position in the S phase.

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