Oxidative capacities of cardiac and skeletal muscles of heart transplant recipients: Mitochondrial effects of cyclosporin-A and its vehicle cremophor-EL

Chronic immunosuppressive treatment was suspected to alter maximal muscle oxidative capacity (V(max) ) of heart transplant recipients, leading to a limitation of their exercise tolerance. It remains undefined whether the mitochondrial respiratory chain (MRC) of right ventricle (RV) and vastus lateralis (VL) muscles were altered by immunosuppressants and/or their vehicles. V(max) was measured polarographically in saponin-skinned fibres of RV and VL biopsies of patients and compared with V(max) of healthy VL and myocardium. Effects of increasing concentrations (1-10-100 μM) of Sandimmune(®) , its vehicle, Cyclosporine (CsA) in ethanol (EtOH), or EtOH alone were tested. The vehicle's effects on MRC complexes were investigated using specific substrates and inhibitors. Ten months after grafting, V(max) of RV and VL of immunosuppressed patients were similar to their V(max) at time of transplantation and to that of control tissues. In Vitro, Sandimmune(®) significantly decreased V(max) while CsA in EtOH or EtOH exerted small and similar effects. Effects of the vehicle were higher than (RV) or identical to (VL) those of Sandimmune(®) . The sites of action of the vehicle on MRC were located on complexes I and IV. While unchanged under chronic immunosuppressive therapy, V(max) of RV and VL muscles was depressed by acute exposure to intravenous Sandimmune(®) in vitro, an effect attributed to its vehicle by inhibition of complexes I and IV of the MRC. This work provides an in vitro proof of a toxic effect on the mitochondria respiratory chain of the vehicle used in the intravenous formulation of Sandimmune(®) but with no clinical consequences in chronically immunosuppressed patients.

Citation

N'Guessan, B. B., Sanchez, H., Zoll, J., Ribera, F., Dufour, S., Lampert, E., . . . Mettauer, B. (2012). Oxidative capacities of cardiac and skeletal muscles of heart transplant recipients: Mitochondrial effects of cyclosporin-A and its vehicle cremophor-EL. Fundamental and Clinical Pharmacology