Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose: To compare the toxicity of triamcinolone acetonide (TA) and preservative–free triamcinolone acetonide (PFTA) on human retinal pigment epithelial (ARPE–19) cells in vitro. Methods: ARPE–19 cells were plated in 6 well tissue culture plates (Becton Dickinson Labware, Franklin Lakes, NJ) at 200,000 cells per well. The cells were treated with three different concentrations (0.2, 0.4 or 0.8 mg/ml) of TA (Kenalog®, Bristol–Meyers Squibb, Princeton, NJ) or PFTA (New England Compounding Center, Framingham, MA). Cell viability was measured with a trypan blue dye exclusion assay (Beckman Coulter Inc., Fullerton, CA) after three different times of incubation: 2, 6 and 24 hours. Results: At the concentration of 0.8 mg/ml TA showed 51.6% cell viability after 6 hours of incubation, compared to 94.1% viability for the untreated control (p<0.05). The PFTA culture treated with 0.8 mg/ml (30.5%, p<0.001) and 0.4 mg/ml (51.6%, p<0.05) showed significantly decreased cell viability after 24 hours of incubation compared to control culture (92.9%). There was no significant toxicity with 0.2 and 0.4 mg/ml of TA compared to the untreated cultures at the three different times of incubation. Conclusions: Concerns have been raised about the potential for ocular toxicity associated with the use of TA, since it was neither formulated nor intended for intraocular use. It has been suggested that perhaps the preservative in the TA formulation might be the cause of ocular toxicity. However in our studies both TA and PFTA showed significant cell toxicity in vitro at 0.8 mg/ml after 6 and 24 hours of incubation, respectively. The results suggest that triamcinolone acetonide itself may be the toxic agent for ARPE–19 cells. Further studies are needed to assess the mechanism(s) of toxicity for triamcinolone acetonide on retinal cells.
Keywords: retinal culture • corticosteroids • drug toxicity/drug effects