Cellular and molecular toxicology of lead. I. effect of lead on cultured cell proliferation

Abstract

Growth studies were done on a cultured rat liver cell line (RLC-GAI) grown in a chemically defined medium in the presence of lead nitrate. Lead reversibly inhibited the growth of these cells even after 6 d of exposure to the heavy metal. To compare lead sensitivity in various cell lines, GI50 and LD50 values were determined in the RLC-GAI cells as well as two glioma cell lines (B82 and C(6)) and a neuroblastoma cell line (N18). The LD50 values paralleled but were consistently lower than the GI50 values. Since lead is known to affect heme synthesis, hemin was added to test the possibilty of preventing the growth-inhibitory effect of the lead. The growth capacity of lead-treated cells did not change with the addition of hemin. It is thought that differentiated cultured cell lines such as these could be useful in examining the molecular mechanism of lead toxicity.