Vanadium accumulation and subcellular distribution in relation to vanadate induced cytotoxicity in vitro

A bovine kidney cell culture system was used to assess the relationship of vandium uptake and subcellular distribution to orthovanadate induced cytotoxicity. Twenty-four hr incubations with 20-1000 microM vanadium elicited 15-75% cytotoxicity. Concentration-related morphological changes from the control polygonal shape to the treated biopolar appearance were detected. Vanadium accumulated in cells via a multiphasic process; peak accumulation was achieved by 1 hr post-treatment and was followed by apparent decline, completed by 3 hr. A slower second phase of accumulation occurred during the remainder of the 24 hr incubation period. A concentration-dependent accumulation resulted in a 50-fold increase in cellular vanadium content. Near maximum toxicity was achieved at a cellular vanadium burden of approximately 5 nmoles/10(6) cells; further accumulation (up to 35 nmoles/10(6) cells) resulted in only a slight increase in the degree of toxicity. Subcellular distribution studies indicated 90% accumulation of vanadium in the soluble supernatant fraction (105,000xg supernatant) at varying stages of cytotoxicity. It was concluded that the multifaceted dependency of vanadium cytotoxicity on its cellular content may have resulted from a cellular balancing between proposed regulatory functions for vanadium and the interactions incurred with an excessive content.