Mitochondrial dysfunction induced by pancreatic and crotalic ( Crotalus durissus terrificus) phospholipases A 2 on rabbit proximal tubules suspensions

Abstract

In the present study we show that phospholipases A 2 isolated from porcine pancreas (PP-PLA 2) and Crotalus durissus terrificus snake venom (SV-PLA 2) induced dose-dependent increases of LDH release from rabbit proximal tubules in suspension. Both porcine and crotalic PLA 2s induced increases in non-esterified fatty acid (NEFA) levels (μg of NEFA/mg of tubule protein). It was observed that the NEFA levels in the pellets were higher than in the supernatant for both PLA 2, and were dose-dependent for the crotalic PLA 2 group. Furthermore, snake venom PLA 2 induced a decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨ m) assessed by both JC-1 uptake and safranin O uptake. Porcine PLA 2 produced no effects on JC-1 uptake with the highest concentrations and an unexpected increase in the group treated with the lowest concentration. In contrast, the safranin O method revealed decreases of energization with both phospholipases, so it had higher sensitivity to the presence of the increased NEFA levels. Addition of delipidated bovine serum albumin (dBSA) completely reversed the effects induced by phospholipases on ΔΨ m measured with safranin O. Incubation with pancreatic and crotalic phospholipases A 2 produced no changes on cell ATP levels. We conclude that the treatment of proximal tubule suspensions with porcine or crotalic phospholipases disturbed membrane integrity as well as mitochondrial function. Specific early NEFA-mediated mitochondrial effects of the phospholipases used in the present study are indicated by the benefit provided by dBSA.