text:  Mannitol control treated A549 human lung cancer cell cultures replicate B Mannitol control treated A549 human lung cancer cell cultures replicate B A549 human lung cancer cells (1X10^5 per T-25 flask in 7 mL complete RPMI 1640 medium) were seeded eights days prior to treatment of non-cycling plateau phase cultures with drug. At four hours prior to RNA isolation, mannitol (5% final concentration) was added to the culture. After incubation for four hours, the culture was washed twice with HBSS supplemented with 0.5% BSA and total RNA was isolated.