title: Sensitive response of cultured vascular smooth-muscle cells to cadmium cytotoxicity: comparison with cultured vascular endothelial cells and kidney epithelial LLC-PK1 cells.
abstract: Response to cadmium cytotoxicity of cultured bovine aortic smooth-muscle cells was compared with that of cultured bovine aortic endothelial cells and porcine kidney epithelial LLC-PK1 cells. The cell damage was evaluated by morphology and the lactate dehydrogenase leakage assay. It was found that vascular smooth-muscle cells are markedly sensitive to cadmium cytotoxicity. The accumulation of intracellular cadmium was much higher but that of metallothionein was much less in vascular smooth-muscle cells than in LLC-PK1 cells; vascular endothelial cells were in between vascular smooth-muscle cells and LLC-PK1 cells. The content of reduced glutathione was slightly increased by cadmium in all three cell types. The present data suggest that a much lower inducibility of metallothionein with a high accumulation of intracellular cadmium in vascular smooth-muscle cells resulted in a marked sensitivity of the cells to cadmium cytotoxicity. Vascular smooth-muscle cells may be one of the critical target of cadmium toxicity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Science, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Hokuriku University, Kanazawa, Japan.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kaji
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Imaki
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Miyajima
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fujiwara
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sakamoto
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kozuka
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002104:Cadmium / Q000633:toxicity*; D002417:Cattle; D002452:Cell Count; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004727:Endothelium / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000473:pathology; D004847:Epithelial Cells; D004848:Epithelium / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology; D007668:Kidney / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000473:pathology; D007770:L-Lactate Dehydrogenase / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D018374:LLC-PK1 Cells; D008668:Metallothionein / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D009131:Muscle, Smooth, Vascular / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000473:pathology; D013552:Swine
chemical_list: D002104:Cadmium; D008668:Metallothionein; D007770:L-Lactate Dehydrogenase