Role of calcium in modulation of toxicities due to cisplatin and its analogs: a histochemical approach

Evaluation of Cisplatin Neurotoxicity in Cultured Rat Dorsal Root Ganglia via Cytosolic Calcium Accumulation

BACKGROUND

Calcium homeostasis is considered to be important in antineoplastic as well as in neurotoxic adverse effects of cisplatin.

AIMS

This study aimed to investigate the role of Ca(2+) in cisplatin neurotoxicity in cultured rat dorsal root ganglia (DRG) cells.

STUDY DESIGN

Cell culture study.

METHODS

DRG cells prepared from 1-day old Sprague-Dawley rats were used to determine the role of Ca(2+) in the cisplatin (10-600 μM) neurotoxicity. The cells were incubated with cisplatin plus nimodipine (1-3 μM), dizocilpine (MK-801) (1-3 μM) or thapsigargin (100-300 nM). Toxicity of cisplatinon DRG cells was determined by the MTT assay.

RESULTS

The neurotoxicity of cisplatin was significant when used in high concentrations (100-600 μM). Nimodipine (1 μM) but not MK-801 or thapsigargin prevented the neurotoxic effects of 200 μM of cisplatin.

CONCLUSION

Voltage-dependent calcium channels may play a role in cisplatin neurotoxicity.

Cisplatin modulates voltage gated channel currents of dorsal root ganglion neurons of rats

The anticancer drug cis-diammindichloroplatin (CDDP, cisplatin) causes severe side effects like peripheral sensitive neuropathy. The toxicity of CDDP has been linked to changes in intracellular calcium homeostasis ([Ca2+]i). Voltage activated calcium channel currents (ICa(V)) are important for the regulation of [Ca2+]i; therefore, this study was designed to examine the effect of CDDP on ICa(V) in comparison to voltage activated potassium (IK(V)) and sodium (INa(V)) channel currents using the whole cell patch clamp method on dorsal root ganglion neurons of rats. In small neurons (<or=Ø20 microm) CDDP reduced peak and sustained ICa(V) concentration dependently (1-100 microM). The IC50 was 23.9+/-4.5 microM (+/-S.D.) for the peak current with a Hill-coefficient of 0.6+/-0.1 and 38.8+/-6.1 microM for the sustained current (Hill-coefficient: 0.7+/-0.1). IK(V) were reduced by 20.9+/-4.8% (10 microM) and INa(V) were only reduced by 9.2%+/-7.2% (10 microM). ICa(V) of large neurons (>or=Ø25 microm) were less sensitive to CDDP. The peak ICa(V) was reduced by 14.1+/-2.3% and IK(V) by 12.8+/-3.4% (100 microM). The sensitivity of INa(V) in large neurons to CDDP was not different compared to small neurons. We conclude that the reduction of ICa(V) in small cells may be responsible for the neurotoxic side effects CDDP causes in sensory neurons.

Protective effect of procaine hydrochloride on cisplatin-induced alterations in rat kidney

Efforts have been made to reduce the undesirable side effects of cisplatin, mainly nephro- and neurotoxicity, but their reduction is usually accompanied by a concomitant inhibition of antitumor activity. The local anesthetic procaine hydrochloride (P.HCl) improves the therapeutic index of cisplatin not only by the reduction of its nephro- and hemotoxicity, but also by an increase of its antitumor activity. We therefore investigated the effects of a combined treatment of cisplatin and P.HCl on rat kidneys and compared this to kidneys from rats treated with a toxic dose of cisplatin or P.HCl alone. Treatment with a saline solution was used as control. Dehydrogenase activities [succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) and NADPH diaphorase reaction demonstrating nitric oxide synthase (NOS/NADPHd)] and phosphatase activities [K -nitrophenyl phosphatase (K pNPPase), alkaline phosphatase (AlPase) and acid phosphatase (AcPase)] were studied on cryostatic sections of kidneys from controls and treated rats. Evidence of heavy morphological damage and altered AlPase and AcPase activities induced by cisplatin were observed in the S3 segment of the proximal tubules. In addition, SDH and K pNPPase activities showed some changes in the distal tubule cells. The NOS/NADPHd activity in macula densa was drastically reduced. Combined treatment of cisplatin and P.HCl greatly attenuated morphological alterations of the rat kidney and reduced the changes in enzyme activities, except for NOS/NADPHd activity, compared to the cisplatin-treated group of animals. The study indicates that, in cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity, a significant role is played by enzyme activities, in particular K pNPPase and NOS/NADPHd, and that P.HCl can mitigate the nephrotoxicity of cisplatin, possibly by influencing some enzyme activities involved in important renal metabolic pathways.