IN <I>VITRO</I> ANTIMITOTIC EFFECT OF METHANOLIC EXTRACTS OF SEAWEEDS SPECIES FROM THE COLOMBIAN CARIBBEAN COST

Searching for new chemotherapy strategies for cancer treatment, numerous traces of antitumor activity have been reported from different species of seaweeds extracts. This study is carried out an evaluation of the antitumor activity with methanolic extract of six species of seaweeds collected in the colombian Caribbean sea, a cytotoxic test, an evaluation about the effect in the cell cycle line HT29 and a selective test in phytohemaglutinine-stimulated peripheral human blood-derived T-lymphocytes are done. All methanolic extracts showed antimitotic effect in the cell system with a wide spectrum of blockage on the mitotic phase from early prometaphase to late anaphase. None of the extracts tested produced an effect on chromosome morphology. This is the first report that demonstrates that the cytotoxic effect of seaweed methanolic extracts act by mitotic blocking, and suggest that methanolic extracts from Colombian seaweeds contains bioactive substances with potential pharmacological use in cancer chemotherapy and cytogenetic assays. Further studies on the usefulness of such substances as cell cycle blocking agents are in process