Journal of Pathology and Translational Medicine

Original Articles

Kinetics of Cyclosporine uptake on Cultured Human Proximal Tubular Cells.: Jung Young Lee; Korean J Pathol. 1990;24(4):430-435.

Abstract PDF: Cyclosporine A (CSA), a lipophilic cyclic undecapeptide, is not accumulated evently in all tissues and has a high affinity to several tissues such as lymphoid organs, liver, and kidneys. From this point of view, it is reasonable to assume that the amount of CSA uptake would be correlated with the extent of cell injury. On the other hand, verapamil, a Ca2+ channel blocker, bas been shown to ameliorate CSA nephrotoxicity. Since proximal tubule is the major site of drug transport and CSA uptake and its interaction with verapamil in isolated human renal proximal tubular cells. The CSA uptake rapidly increased over the first 5 min and then achieved almost steady-state after 10 min at all concentrations (0.5-10 uM). Kinetic analysis yielded that the Km and Vmax values of CSA were 5.6 uM and 86.2 p mol/mg cell protein/min, respectively. And Ca2+ depletion in media enhanced CSA uptake significantly but verapamil reduced it. These results suggest that the Ca2+ channels and CSA transporting sites on cell membrane are closely associated and that Ca2+ and CSA might be taken up competitively by proximal tubular cells.

Cyclosporine Toxicity on Cultured Human Renal Proximal Tubular Cells.: Jung Young Lee; Korean J Pathol. 1990;24(4):423-429.

Abstract PDF: Nephrotoxicity is the most common dose-limiting factor of cyclosporine A (CSA) in clinical usage. But the mechanism of CSA-induced nephrotoxicity still remains unresolved. Many authors insisted that CSA induced renal proximal tubular cell injury is due to the secondary effects following hemodynamic changes or endothelial cell damage, instead of direct toxicity by CSA. To find out that CSA has a direct toxicity to the proximal tubular cells, the author used primary cultures of human proximal tubular cells to eliminate the hemodynamic or endothelial influences that could be produced in in vivo model. In the present study, the viability against CSA was tested by the neutral red assay method with modulation of Ca2+ amount in incubating media and observed electron microscopically. The viability test showed direct toxic effect of CSA on human proximal tubular cells and this was enhanced by Ca2+ depletion in incubating media. Morphologically noted are accumulation of lipid droplets and polyribosomal dispersion, which may be association with inhibition of cellular synthetic activity. These results suggest the toxixity is a direct effect of cyclosporine and that toxic mechanism may be due to inhibition of cellular synthetic activity. And this experiment also showed that primary cultures of human renal proximal tubular cells can be a good in in vivo model for investigating CSA nephrotoxicity.

Search