RESUMO
In order to study in vitro the toxic and metabolic effects of antipsychotic drugs (AP) on the cells of hepatic origin we used human hepatoblastoma cell line HepG2. We cultured HepG2 cells in the presence of two AP of the first and second generations (haloperidol and olanzapine, respectively) adding them to the culture medium in concentrations that may at the therapeutic use of AP take place in liver and other tissues of a high lipid content. In the process of cultivation, we detected several products of carbohydrate and lipid metabolism, measured activity of four hepatocellular enzymes in the culture medium, and estimated cell viability/proliferation in the MTS-test. We observed that both AP performed a toxic effect on HepG2 cells, the effect was manifested by a decrease in cell viability/proliferation and an increase in alkaline phosphatase activity in the culture medium. The toxic effect of olanzapine was less pronounced in comparison to haloperidol. According to the data from literature, AP upregulate the expression of lipogenesis genes in the cells of central nervous system, adipose tissue and liver, that might lead to hyperlipidemia. However, we observe in our experiments no increase in the levels of total cholesterol, of cholesterol in lipoproteins of high and low density, of triglycerides in the culture medium containing haloperidol or olanzapine. That observation may have been due to the fact that both AP, which are cationic amphiphiles, are capable to inhibit intracellular traffic of lipids. We also found no effects of haloperidol and olanzapine on the activity of aspartate aminotransferase and gamma-glutamyltransferase, while both AP did reduce the alanine aminotransferase activity. Our work proves that HepG2 cells can be helpful as an in vitro model to obtain new data on metabolic effects of drugs on the cells of hepatic origin and to assess the risk of a drug hepatotoxicity in preclinical studies.