Cyclosporin A induces glomerular endothelial cell injury in vitro

The chronic administration of cyclosporin A (CyA) could be associated with renal arteriolar damage. Endothelial cell injury is considered to be the first event in this pathological change. Bovine glomerular endothelial cells (GEN) were used to investigate whether CyA induces microvascular injury in vitro. The damage induced by CyA was demonstrated by cell detachment from the culture plate and cell lysis as characterized by the increase in lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) at the same time after CyA treatment. One mumol/L of CyA induced detachment of GEN within 3 h and lysis after 6 h. Cyclosporin A-induced GEN lysis appeared in a dose and time-dependent manner. These results indicate that GEN are vulnerable to CyA exposure, suggesting that GEN damage might be related to CyA-mediated glomerular injury.