Protective Effects of Thiotriazolinum and Mildronate Against Mercury Chloride Toxicity in Neuroblastoma Cell Culture

Abstract

We studied the toxic action of mercury (II) chloride (10.9 μM) on cultured IMR-32 neuroblastoma cells and possible protective effects of the antioxidant thiotriazolinum and cardioprotector mildronate (concentrations of the former agent in the medium 0.01-10.0 mg/ml). Isolated addition of thiotriazolinum and a combination of thiotriazolinum + mildronate to the medium did not cause dramatic negative effects (number of dead cells at all concentrations used did not exceed 7–10% of the population under control conditions). Thiotriazolinum in concentrations of 0.1 and 0.01 mg/ml demonstrated a significant neuroprotective activity against the toxic action of mercury (II) chloride: the mean number of living cells under such conditions of culturing was, on average, about 83.0% vs 54.7% in the case where isolated action of HgCl2 was used. The mean number of living (morphologically unaffected) cells cultured in the medium containing 10.9 μM HgCl2 with the addition of mildronate + thiotriazolinum reached 87.0% of the control value taken as 100%. Therefore, under the toxic action of HgCl2 on cultured IMR-32 neuroblastoma cells, the combination of mildronate and thiotriazolinum demonstrated a significant protective effect, which was more intense than that of thiotriazolinum at its isolated application. Thiotriazolinum in concentrations of 0.001 to 0.1 mg/ml exerts rather moderate negative effects on the studied culture of neuroblastoma cells.