Effect of glucose and insulin deprivation on differentiation and carbohydrate metabolism of rabbit proximal tubular cells in primary culture.

Rabbit proximal tubule cells in primary culture revert from gluconeogenesis to glycolysis. To determine whether glucose and insulin deprivation of the culture medium could prevent this metabolic conversion without a loss of differentiation, rabbit proximal tubule cells were cultured in hormonally defined medium free of glucose and insulin and compared to rabbit proximal tubule cells cultured in medium supplemented with 17.5 mM glucose and 5 micrograms/ml insulin. In the two culture conditions, RPT cells grew at a similar rate and reached confluency within 4-5 days. Patterns of enzyme activity, including brush-border hydrolases, N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase and glutathione-S-transferases as a function of culture time were comparable in the two media. During the growth phase in glucose- and insulin-free medium, cells showed higher sodium-dependent glucose uptake. Scanning electron microscopy revealed a high density of microvilli at confluency regardless of the culture conditions. In both the presence and absence of glucose and insulin, the activities of gluconeogenic enzymes, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase and fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase, as well as basal and pyruvate-stimulated glucose production fell markedly as a function of time. By contrast, glucose and insulin deprivation greatly reduced both the lactate production rate and the activities of glycolytic enzymes, pyruvate kinase, hexokinase and lactate dehydrogenase.

Platinum complex-induced dysfunction of cultured renal proximal tubule cells. A comparative study of carboplatin and transplatin with cisplatin.

Platinum coordination complexes (PtCx) are potent against several types of cancer but are often nephrotoxic. With a view to developing a PtCx nephrotoxicity model, the toxicity of cisplatin (cDDP), transplatin (tDDP) and carboplatin (CBDCA) was studied in primary cultures of rabbit proximal tubule (RPT) cells and in the renal epithelial OK cell line. The cytotoxicity of these PtCx (10-3000 microM) was assessed after 24 h exposure of confluent monolayers in terms of LDH release; their effects at non-cytotoxic concentrations (1-1000 microM) on DNA and protein synthesis, glucose transport, marker enzymes and the total glutathione concentration were also determined, together with cellular platinum uptakes. The cytotoxicity ranking of the studied compounds differed for OK and RPT cells (cDDP > tDDP; cDDP > CBDCA and tDDP > cDDP; cDDP > CBDCA, respectively). Only results which were obtained in RPT cells corresponded to reported nephrotoxicity in vivo, making OK cells inappropriate for the study of PtCx nephrotoxicity in vitro. cDDP was about 10 times less cytotoxic for OK cells than for RPT cells because of lower cellular uptake. tDDP was unable markedly to inhibit biochemical and functional parameters in RPT cells below cytotoxic concentrations. At non-cytotoxic concentrations, cDDP and CBDCA depressed synthetic activity (mainly DNA) and, to a lesser extent, Na(+)-K(+)-ATPase activity and glucose transport in RPT cells. Total glutathione levels in RPT cells steadily increased during exposure to cDDP, tDDP and CBDCA, before the onset of cell death, arguing against an early role of glutathione depletion in PtCx toxicity.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Morphological and biochemical characterization of the opossum kidney cell line and primary cultures of rabbit proximal tubule cells in serum-free defined medium.

Proliferation, morphology and time course patterns of marker enzyme activities of primary cultures of renal rabbit proximal tubule cells (RPT cells) and Opossum kidney cells (OK cells) in antibiotic-free and serum-free defined medium were investigated. Both RPT and OK cells grew to confluency within 6-8 days. RPT cells were thicker and displayed higher density of both microvilli and mitochondria when compared with OK cells. RPT cells exhibited higher activity of glutathione-S-transferase when compared with OK cells, whereas in the latter, higher glutathione content could be detected. Apical and basolateral membrane enzymes were higher in RPT cells than in OK cells. Stable high glycolytic activity and low gluconeogenesis activity in OK cells pointed out a strict dependence on glycolysis, whereas RPT cells exhibited glucose metabolism shift towards the glycolysis pathway.

Adenylate cyclase responses and biochemical characterization of primary rabbit proximal tubular cell cultures and LLC-PK1 cells.

Freshly isolated rabbit proximal tubules (PT), confluent primary rabbit proximal tubule cultures (PTC) and LLC-PK1 cells were characterised. Brushborder enzyme activities were lower in PTC than in LLC-PK1: ratios were 0.026 for alkaline phosphatase (AP), 0.458 for alanine aminopeptidase (AAP) and 0.514 for gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT). PT/PTC ratios were 79.7 for AP, 7.96 for AAP and 3.45 for GGT. Specific activities of hexokinase (HK) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were high in cultured cells as compared to PT: PT/PTC ratios were 0.063 and 0.033, while PTC/LLC-PK1 ratios were 0.406 and 1.19 for HK and LDH respectively. PTC/LLC-PK1 ratios were 2.21 for Na/K ATPase, 2.07 for succinate dehydrogenase, 1.12 for cathepsin B, 0.607 for N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase and 8.98 for glutathione-S-transferase. Adenylate cyclase response to parathormone (PTH), was similar in PTC and PT, but stimulated/basal ratios were higher in PT than in PTC. LLC-PK1 cells were stimulated by thyrocalcitonin (SCT), arginin-vasopressin (AVP) and PTH; stimulated/basal ratios ranked AVP greater than PTH greater than SCT. Differences between both types of cultures affect the choice of in vitro model for nephrotoxicity studies.