Arsenite uptake and metabolism by rat hepatocyte primary cultures in comparison with kidney- and hepatocyte-derived rat cell lines.

Biotransformation by methylation to monomethylarsonic acid (MMA) and dimethylarsinic acid (DMA) influences inorganic arsenical toxicity, which is often investigated in cultured cells. Arsenic (III) uptake and methylation was assessed in rat hepatocytes in primary culture and in three established rat cell lines (hepatoma-derived McA-RH 7777 cells and H4-II-EC-3 cells, and kidney epithelium-derived NRK-52E cells) to compare their use as model systems for arsenite metabolism. Incubation of all cell types with 0.27, 0.67, 1.33, 2.67, or 6.67 microM As(III) concentrations resulted in concentration-dependent arsenic uptake and biomethylation. Arsenic uptake by the NRK-52E cells was initially slower than that of the other cells, but by 8 h, total uptake was similar in all cell types. At the lowest arsenite concentration, the percentages of total arsenic methylated to MMA and DMA by the hepatocytes and the McA-RH 7777 cells were similar (67 and 66%); methylation by the H4-II-EC-3 cells was somewhat lower (52%), and methylation by the kidney-derived NRK-52E cells was much lower (15%). Total arsenic methylation was inhibited in the cell lines, but not in the hepatocytes, at the highest arsenite concentrations. In all cases, exposure to increased arsenite concentrations inhibited conversion of MMA to DMA much more than it affected the initial methylation step (inorganic arsenite to MMA). These results indicate that rat hepatocytes in primary culture and established rat hepatoma-derived cell lines are similar in their abilities to accumulate and methylate arsenic to MMA and DMA at environmentally relevant arsenic concentrations in the medium. They differed from the kidney epithelium-derived cells, which exhibited substantially lower biomethylation activity.