Chapter 15 The Use and Action of Drugs in Analyzing Mitosis

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This chapter describes the use of drugs in studies of mitosis and their mode of action at a biochemical/mechanistic level and present general guidelines for using the drugs as tools. The chapter presents a brief overview of microtubule assembly dynamics and summarizes the current understanding of (i) the binding of vinblastine, colchicine, nocodazole, and taxol to tubulin and microtubules; (ii) the effects of the drugs on microtubule polymerization and dynamics in vitro and in cells; (iii) the levels and kinetics of cellular accumulation and loss of the compounds; (iv) the drug concentration dependence for effects on mitotic spindle organization; and (v) the advantages and disadvantages of using a particular drug for the study of microtubule assembly and dynamics. The chapter also describes the methods for measuring drug uptake into cultured cells, and summarizes some practical guidelines for drug use. First of all, one has to determine the effects of the drug on spindle microtubule organization and mitosis over a range of concentrations in the cells of choice. One should also ensure that the drug is completely solubilized and should determine the effects of varying the duration of drug incubation.

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