Assays of thirteen cell lines, derived from mouse lymphomas, myelomas, myeloid tumors, and a mastocytoma, for sensitivity to growth inhibition by 1-β-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine (ara-C) revealed a spectrum between the most and least sensitive which differed 100-fold from each other. An inverse correlation between sensitivity and cellular Deoxycytidine triphosphate (2′-Deoxycytidine-5′-triphosphate, dCTP) content is found, and this suggested that sensitivity of cells might be increased if the dCTP content was lowered during cell exposure to ara-C.
Deoxycytidine triphosphate trisodium salt is a phosphoethanolamine cytidylyltransferase substrate.