Biochemical mechanisms of aminoglycoside cell toxicity. II. Accumulation of phospholipids during myeloid body formation and histological studies on myeloid bodies using twelve aminoglycoside antibiotics.
Cultured human skin fibroblasts take up aminoglycoside antibiotics into lysosomes to form myeloid bodies. Gentamicin (GM), one such antibiotic, was taken up until the cellular concentration reached an estimated 64 mM on the 3rd day when cells were incubated with 2 mM gentamicin. The rate of release of intracellular GM was high on the first day of incubation and gradually slowed down over the next 4 d. About 50% of the GM remained in the cells even on longer incubation in GM-free medium, suggesting it may irreversibly bind to cellular components. With myeloid body formation, the cellular phospholipid content increased 1.5 times. Bis(monoacyl-glyceryl)phosphate, which is known as a marker of lysosomal phospholipid, phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylserine showed 250, 162, and 153% increases, respectively. Sphingomyelin was not accumulated, while lysosomal sphingomyelinase was dramatically inhibited. Of 12 different aminoglycoside antibiotics, paromomycin is the most prominent myeloid body-forming antibiotic. The myeloid body-formation is not directly correlated to human nephrotoxicity. On the other hand, the number of myeloid bodies is well correlated to the affinity to the brush border membrane, suggesting that such aminoglycoside antibiotics are taken up easily through cellular endocytosis. The cytotoxic effects of aminoglycoside antibiotics may be due to by their binding to cellular organelles other than lysosomes.