Gliotoxin causes apoptosis and necrosis of rat Kupffer cells in vitro and in vivo in the absence of oxidative stress: Exacerbation by caspase and serine protease inhibition

Background/Aims A potential application of gliotoxin therapy for liver fibrosis was suggested by its apoptotic effect on fibrogenic activated stellate cells. We investigated if gliotoxin exerts similar effects on hepatic macrophage Kupffer cells. Methods Effects of gliotoxin on Kupffer cells isolated from the normal liver and in vivo following its administration to CCl4-induced cirrhotic rats were studied. Results Gliotoxin caused apoptosis of cultured Kupffer cells, the effect being apparent at 0.3 μM concentration within 1 h; longer incubation caused necrosis. This effect was associated with mitochondrial cytochrome c release, caspase-3 activation and ATP depletion. Interestingly, inhibition of caspase-3 and serine proteases accelerated and augmented gliotoxin-induced cell death via necrosis. Gliotoxin stimulated nuclear translocation of NFκB, and phosphorylation of p38, ERK1/2 and JNK MAP kinases, but these signaling molecules were not involved in gliotoxin-induced death of Kupffer cells. In vivo administration of gliotoxin to cirrhotic rats caused apoptosis of Kupffer cells, stellate cells and hepatocytes. In control rats, the effect was minimal on the nonparenchymal cells and not apparent on hepatocytes. Conclusions In the fibrotic liver, gliotoxin nonspecifically causes death of hepatic cell types. Modification of gliotoxin molecule may be necessary for selective targeting and elimination of activated stellate cells.