Heterogeneity in the amount of ionic cadmium necessary to elicit cell death in independent cultures of human proximal tubule cells.

Eleven separate isolates of human renal proximal tubule cells (HPT) were analyzed for toxic response to ionic cadmium exposure over a 16-day period in vitro. This study demonstrates a heterogeneous response to Cd2+ exposure in isolates from different individuals with some individuals nearly 3-times more sensitive to ionic cadmium exposure than others. There was no apparent correlation to the race, sex or age of the individuals in the response to cadmium. In addition, readily identifiable culture artifacts, i.e., culture age, passage number, had no influence on the response to Cd2+ exposure and the different isolates had homogeneous baseline HPT properties and morphology. This difference in response to Cd2+ may reflect a heterogeneous response within the human population to cadmium exposure.