¹Department of BIOCHEMISTRY, Faculty of PHARMACY, ANKARA University, Ankara, Turkey
²Department of MEDICAL BIOLOGY, Faculty of MEDICINE, ANKARA University, Ankara, Turkey DOI : 10.29228/jrp.146 Many organic solvents are used in cell culture models to dissolve polar and non-polar chemical compounds and drugs to test their activities. However, the solvents themselves can have cytotoxic effects on cells. The degree of cytotoxic effect may vary according to the solvent used. The aim of this study is to determine the time and concentration dependent effects of methanol, ethanol, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), ethyl acetate and acetone on colorectal cancer (HCT-116), chronic myeloid leukemia (K562), multiple myeloma (H929) and acute promyelocytic leukemia (HL60) cell lines. According to our results, DMSO is the most toxic solvent and ethyl acetate and methanol are least toxic solvents in all cells. IC50 value of Acetone is greater than 10% in K562, HL60 and HCT-116 cells in all tested incubation times but in H929 cells IC50 value of acetone is decreased over time. In conclusion, since most of these solvents are currently being used for treatment of cells with different drugs and compounds in biochemical toxicology studies, it is essentially important to reveal their biochemical and toxic effects to determine the optimum concentration to be used. Keywords : DMSO; Methanol; Acetone; Ethanol; cytotoxicity; cell culture; MTT; cancer