Linoleic acid cytotoxicity to bovine lens epithelial cells: influence of albumin on linoleic acid uptake and cytotoxicity.

The high cytotoxicity of linoleic acid (LA) to cultured bovine lens epithelial cells is correlated with high uptake rates for the fatty acid (FA). Both, LA uptake and LA cytotoxicity strongly increase with the increasing LA-to-albumin molar ratio in the culture medium. Cellular uptake and cytotoxicity of LA can be competitively inhibited with the noncytotoxic palmitic acid. The findings may be of interest in view of the low albumin concentration in aqueous humor, resulting in extremely low buffering capacities for free FAs including LA, oleic acid and other cytotoxic cis-unsaturated free FAs, which are strongly raised in pathological situations like diabetes mellitus.