PMID: 16518957Mar 8, 2006Paper

Uridine abrogates the adverse effects of antiretroviral pyrimidine analogues on adipose cell functions

Antiviral Therapy
Ulrich A WalkerMartine Caron

Abstract

Side effects of antiretroviral treatment such as lipoatrophy have been mainly attributed to mitochondrial toxicity of nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs). We assessed whether uridine can abrogate the adverse effects of NRTIs on adipocyte functions. 3T3-F442A preadipocytes were exposed to stavudine (d4T; 10 microM), zidovudine (ZDV; 1 microM), zalcitabine (ddC; 0.2 microM) or didanosine (ddl; 10 microM) in the absence or presence of uridine 21 days prior to and 7 days after induction of differentiation. Then, lipid accumulation (oil red staining), apoptosis (flow cytometry, PARP-cleavage), mitochondrial mass (Mitotracker) and DNA (mtDNA), cytochrome c oxidase (COX) subunits and mitochondrial membrane potential (JC-1) were quantified. Whereas ddl had no effects, d4T, ZDV and ddC significantly decreased cellular lipid accumulation (by 32%, 46% and 24%, respectively), increased apoptosis and induced mitochondrial depolarization. d4T, ZDV and ddC decreased adipocyte mtDNA (by 64%, 53% and 46%, respectively) and reduced the mtDNA encoded COX II subunit. Uridine (200 microM) had no intrinsic effect, but prevented all adverse effects of d4T, ZDV and ddC on adipocyte morphology, lipid staining, apoptosis, mtDNA depletion...Continue Reading

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