Investigation of nuclear DNA content and cell cycle phases in rat liver cells under chlorpromazine administration

Abstract

Hepatotoxicity of antipsychotic drugs remains an urgent problem of modern medicine. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to investigate the nuclear DNA content and cell cycle phases of rat liver cells under Сhlorpromazine administration at doses ranging from 3.5 mg/kg to 28 mg/kg for 30 and 60 days. The study was conducted on 60 sexually mature female rats. Chlorpromazine was administered once daily for 30 and 60 days at doses of 3.5 mg/kg, 7 mg/kg, 14 mg/kg, 21 mg/kg and 28 mg/kg. The DNA content in the nuclei of rat liver cells was determined by flow cytometry. Cytological analysis of cells was performed using FloMax software (Partec, Germany), where the percentage of nuclei in the G0G1 interval of the cell cycle, in the S phase, G2M interval, and the apoptosis index – SUB-G0G1 area on DNA histograms were determined. Statistical processing of the results was performed using the Mann-Whitney U test. The results of the study showed that Сhlorpromazine has a dose-dependent hepatotoxic effect: with an increase in the dose of this drug in rats from 7 to 28 mg/kg, the percentage of fragmented nuclei in liver tissue significantly increased, which is a sign of hepatocyte death by apoptosis. It was found that Сhlorpromazine at a dose of 3.5 mg/kg did not increase hepatocyte apoptosis, while at a dose of 21 and 28 mg/kg the drug showed the highest hepatotoxicity, increasing the level of apoptosis by 1.9 and 2.1 (p˂0.05) times, respectively. The hepatotoxic effect is enhanced by the use of Сhlorpromazine for 60 days, which is manifested in a significant increase in hepatocyte nuclear DNA fragmentation, which, in our opinion, should be taken into account when conducting long-term therapy in patients.