Prevention of an increase in susceptibility to calcium in a neuroblastoma cell line.

An increase in susceptibility of neuroblastoma cells to calcium was inhibited when the cells were treated with hypothermia, diphenylhydantoin, chlorpromazine or pentobarbital; all of these treatments affect membrane permeability to calcium or membrane-associated cell metabolism. Diphenylhydantoin and chlorpromazine were found to have positive effects only when they were administered before the addition of calcium. This was in contrast to flunarizine, which showed a protective effect only in combination with calcium. However, leupeptin did not show any positive effect, indicating that calcium-activated neutral protease may be only slightly involved in this type of calcium-induced cell damage.