AMIODARONE PHOTOTOXICITY TO HUMAN ERYTHROCYTES AND LYMPHOCYTES

Abstract

Abstract Amiodarone (AD) therapy for cardiac arrhythmia frequently leads to cutaneous phototoxicity. Amiodarone and its metabolite, desethylamiodarone (DEA), photosensitized hemolysis of red blood cells (RBC) and were phototoxic to lymphocytes. Hemolysis photosensitized by 3.3 μ M AD was partially oxygen dependent and was partially quenched 5 m M sodium azide, 50 m M mannitol, superoxide dismutase (251 U/me e ) and catalase (1500 U/m e ), but was unaffected when H 2 O was replaced by D 2 O. These results suggest that membrane damage may be important in the in vivo phototoxicity to AD, that both oxygen dependent and oxygen independent mechanisms may operate, and that active oxygen species such as O 2 and hydrogen peroxide may be involved. Photohemolysis was more rapid in the presence of DEA than of AD. However, this may be due to the greater fragility of the cell membrane in the presence of DEA. The greater phototoxicity of DEA than AD towards lymphocytes was not due to greater membrane fragility.