Biological activities of phthalocyanines-VIII. Cellular distribution in V-79 Chinese hamster cells and phototoxicity of selectively sulfonated aluminum phthalocyanines

Abstract

Water soluble chloro aluminum phthalocyanines sulfonated to different degrees are studied for phototoxicity and cellular distribution in V-79 Chinese hamster cells. The more hydrophobic disulfonated dyes, with sulfonate substituents on adjacent benzyl groups of the phthalocyanine ring structure, exhibited the best cell penetrating properties and the highest phototoxicity. Fluorescence microscopy revealed that the dye was uniformly distributed in the cytoplasm but absent in the nucleus. The greater cell membrane penetrating properties of the lower as compared to the higher sulfonated dyes are attributed to the amphiphilic nature of the former.