Abstract
In order to probe the mechanism of survival at high concentrations of cadmium, a population of Cd 2+-resistant Chinese hamster ovary cells (CHO-K1M), was obtained by selective pressure. This stable population of cells were characterized as tolerant to 200 μM Cd 2+. In addition to the acquired resistance to Cd 2+, the CHO-K1M cells also demonstrated resistance to 2 mM Zn 2+. The CHO-K1M cells exhibit a diminished capacity to accumulate Cd 2+ at low concentration (0.5 or 1.0 μM), which is not evident at high Cd 2+ concentration. CHO-K1M cells demonstrated an induced synthesis of metallothionein as defined by physical characteristics and cysteine incorporation. The CHO-K1M cells cultured in the presence of 200 μM Cd 2+ were determined to have an intracellular concentration of metallothionein representing more than 50-fold that observed in the wild-type cells. These results suggest that in CHO-K1M cells, the induction of metallothionein synthesis represents the important parameter involved in the determination of resistance to high levels of Cd 2+ and Zn 2+.
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