A screen for apoptotic synergism between clinical relevant nephrotoxicant and the cytokine TNF-alpha

作者：Benedetti Giulia; Ramaiahgaris Sreenivasa; Herpers Bram; van de Water Bob^*; Price Leo S; de Graauw Marjo

来源：Toxicology in Vitro, 2013, 27(8): 2264-2272.

DOI：10.1016/j.tiv.2013.09.004

• Nephrotoxicity
• Mouse immortalized proximal tubular
• epithelial cells
• TNF-alpha
• In vitro cytotoxicity assay
• Synergistic apoptosis

Nephrotoxicity remains one of the main reasons for post-market drug withdrawal. Tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) secretion has been shown to underlie the nephrotoxicity induced by some of these drugs. Yet, there is currently no reliable and sensitive in vitro assay available to screen for nephrotoxicants of which toxicity largely depends on TNF-alpha secretion. Therefore, we developed and applied a sensitive fluorescence-based in vitro assay for TNF-alpha-mediated nephrotoxicity screening using mouse immortalized proximal tubular epithelial cells (IM-PTECs). Our assay allows rapid evaluation of TNF-alpha-mediated toxicant-induced apoptosis and necrosis using fixed endpoint and live cell measurements. To evaluate our assay, sixteen nephrotoxicants and two control non-nephrotoxicants were used. Out of the sixteen nephrotoxicants, eight induced cell death, of which five induced apoptosis as well as necrosis. Moreover, TNF-alpha significantly enhanced apoptotic cell death induced by cisplatin, cyclosporine A, tacrolimus and azidothymidine. These nephrotoxicants are known to induce inflammation in vivo which has been linked to an enhancement of nephrotoxicity for cisplatin, cyclosporine A and tacrolimus, confirming the functionality of our assay. Overall, our assay allows rapid and sensitive measurement of apoptosis and necrosis induced by a combination of nephrotoxicants and inflammatory components such as TNF-alpha and can be used as an alternative assay for nephrotoxicity prediction in vitro.

• 出版日期2013-12