Toxicologia Ambiental e Analítica

Cytotoxicity of Heavy Metals to a Thyroid Carcinoma Cell Line

Abstract

Jun Kobayashi, Keiichi Ikeda and Hideo Sugiyama

Multiple heavy metals are known to cause renal insufficiency and necrosis, details on the toxic mechanism are still lacking. We investigated the cytotoxicity of 12 heavy metals to the 8505C thyroid cancer cells at concentrations of 10−3–105 μM. Notable decreases in cell viability were observed in exposures to four metals in the divalent cation form (nickel, copper, zinc and cadmium) at concentrations ≥ 1 μM. The effect of cadmium on cell death was substantial. In addition, the toxicity of 3 μM cadmium to the cells was inhibited by the addition of high concentrations (300 μM) of calcium or selenium, but intracellular levels of cadmium increased.