Antineoplastic intercalating agents such as 4'-(9-acridinylamino)methanesulfon-m-anisidide (m-AMSA) stabilize a cleavable complex between topoisomerase II and DNA. The production of protein-associated DNA cleavage in whole cells exposed to m-AMSA is thought to represent the cellular correlate of this topoisomerase II-mediated reaction. Protein-associated DNA cleavage can be quantified in mammalian cells by using alkaline elution technology. In an attempt to understand the impact of phenotypic and biochemical cellular characteristics on protein-associated DNA cleavage, we quantified m-AMSA-induced DNA cleavage in quiescent or proliferative normal human fibroblasts (cell strain 1508) and human glioblastoma cells (line T98G) as well as in asynchronously proliferating HeLa cells. The magnitude of DNA cleavage in quiescent fibroblasts and quiescent glioblastoma cells was identical and low relative to that observed in the HeLa cells. The magnitude of DNA cleavage was enhanced in both cell types following proliferation. This enhancement was greater in the glioblastoma cells than in the fibroblasts. These results were not due to alterations in cellular m-AMSA uptake. Chromatin was more elongated (open) in the quiescent glioblastoma cells than in the quiescent fibroblasts (as visualized by using the premature chromosome condensation assay), suggesting chromatin accessibility to drug per se may not be a critical determinant of the magnitude of m-AMSA-induced DNA cleavage. The onset of the enhanced m-AMSA-induced DNA cleavability that accompanied proliferation closely followed the formation of regions of localized chromatin decondensation, a late G1 event, and coincided with the onset of enhanced thymidine uptake, a marker for the onset of S phase. m-AMSA-induced cytotoxicity was also enhanced in proliferating compared with quiescent cells. The major finding of this study is that the cellular target for m-AMSA, putatively topoisomerase II, is more susceptible to drug action in proliferating cells than in quiescent cells. Effects of chromatin conformation or cellular phenotype upon topoisomerase II-mediated events such as m-AMSA-induced DNA cleavage are less certain.