Use of flow cytometry and confocal microscopy techniques to investigate early CdCl(2)-induced nephrotoxicity in vitro.

CdCl(2) is a well-known toxic compound for the kidney in vivo and in vitro. We report here part of the results of an ECVAM (European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods) contract study, aimed at establishing and assessing several flow cytometric and confocal microscopic endpoints for use in an in vitro nephrotoxicity model. Three renal tubule cell lines, OK (opossum, proximal tubule origin), LLC-PK1 (pig, proximal tubule origin) and MDCK (dog, distal tubule origin) were exposed for 1, 5 and 24 h to 25 microM and 100 microM CdCl(2). The results obtained for mitochondrial membrane potential showed a decrease in all the cell lines after 5 h of treatment with both CdCl(2) concentra…