An attempt to use vincristine and colcemid to measure proliferative rates in normal human epidermis in vivo

Abstract

A range of doses of vincristine (0.5-10 .mu.g) or colcemid (5-100 .mu.g) injected intradermally into normal volunteers failed to yield any significant accumulation of arrested mitoses despite an apparently successful block of cells in metaphase by the highest 3 doses of each drug. Possible reasons for the failure to see accumulation are discussed. Normal human epidermis probably is not a suitable system for application of the metaphase-arrest technique using intradermal injection.