Structural changes induced by diethyl ether in cultured neuroblastoma cells

It has been found that the more differentiated growing cells of a neuroblastoma culture retract their neurites under the action of diethyl ether (for anesthesia) in a dose of 1.0 ml per 15 ml of culture medium for 2 h; as a result, their cytoplasm is gradually drawn into the cell bodies. Under these conditions the coefficient K, which reflects the ratio of the number of neuroblastoma cell bodies to the number of their processes and is 9.94±2.12 in the initial state, gradually increases to 19.66±1.93 (P<0.002). There is also a substantial change in the shape of the cells and a decrease in their volume. This reaction is characteristic both of relatively undifferentiated neuroblastoma cells and for more differentiated cells in various phases of individual cellular development and morphological differentiation. The data obtained create the prerequisites for a search for drugs capable of preventing the destruction of neurons under anesthesia.