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Comparative cytotoxicity of low-osmolar nonionic and high-osmolar ionic contrast media to dog gallbladder epithelial
Young-Min Ju1, Myung-Hwan Kim, Sung-Koo Lee
1Division of Gastroenterology, Asan Medical Center, 388-1 Poongnap-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul 138-736, South Korea.
Background:
Most studies of the adverse effects of x-ray contrast media used in ERCP have focused on post-ERCP pancreatitis. However, the biliary epithelial cells are also exposed to contrast media during ERCP and acute cholangitis is also a serious complication of ERCP. The present study compared the cytotoxicity with gallbladder epithelial cells of ionic and nonionic contrast agents.
Methods:
A high-osmolar ionic contrast agent (meglumine ioxithalamate) and a low-osmolar nonionic contrast agent (iopromide) were tested. Monolayer cell cultures of dog gallbladder epithelial cells were used. The cells were exposed to the 2 contrast agents with increasing iodine concentration and osmolality for 2 days. Cell number, S-phase fraction, aneuploidy, and supernatant LDH activities were measured each day.
Results:
Cell growth was more severely inhibited by ioxithalamate than iopromide (p < 0.05) and strongly dependent on the osmolality of contrast agent. The cytostatic effect estimated by S-phase fraction was more pronounced for ioxithalamate. Chromosomal damage determined by aneuploidy was more frequently detected with ioxithalamate.
Conclusions:
High-osmolar ionic contrast media are more cytotoxic than low-osmolar nonionic contrast media to gallbladder epithelial cells. Animal and clinical studies are needed to estimate the clinical implications of these findings.