A comparison of BGM and LLC-PK1 cells for the evaluation of nephrotoxicity

Abstract

Nephrotoxicity is one of the most frequent effects observed after the use of medicine. Such situations have been tardily discovered because of existing methods to determine toxicity. The validation of sensitive, alternative methods for the early identification of toxic effects is as important as restrictions on the use of animals. In this light, the present study evaluated the effects of gentamicin on BGM and LLC-PK1 cells, using MTT and Neutral Red (NR). Although the LLC-PK1 cell line is used for toxicological studies, the BGM cell line is relatively new for this purpose. MTT (BGM: EC50=6.29mM; LLC-PK1: EC50=8.01mM) was found to be more sensitive than NR (EC50 was greater than 10mM for both cells). By using MTT, both cells demonstrated the involvement of mitochondria in a manner that was dose dependent, with an apoptotic process occurring at the concentrations of 1 and 3mM and necrosis at concentrations above 4mM. It could, therefore, be concluded that 1) BGM appears to be useful in the study of the mechanism of nephrotoxicity caused by gentamicin and 2) because of its sensitivity to MTT, in addition to its ease of manipulation, it is believed that the BGM cell line can also be used as an alternative method to evaluate nephrotoxicity.