1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 prevents deleterious effects of erythromycin on mitochondrial function in rat heart isolated mitochondria.

Erythromycin (ERY) is a risk factor for cardiotoxicity through the mitochondria pathway. In the current study, we tested the hypothesis that erythromycin could impair mitochondrial function and oxidative stress and 1,25-dihydroxivitamin D3 (calcitriol) treatment could prevent these effects in rat heart isolated mitochondria. Rat heart mitochondria were isolated with mechanical lysis and differential centrifugation. Then isolated mitochondria were first pretreated with three different concentrations of 1,25-dihydroxivitamin D3 (2.5, 5 and 10 µmol/L) for 5 minutes at 37°C, after which erythromycin (10 µmol/L) was added to promote deleterious effects on mitochondria. During 1 hour of incubation, using by flow cytometry and biochemical evaluations, the parameters of mitochondrial toxicity were evaluated, including: succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) activity, mitochondrial swelling, mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) collapse, reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation and lipid peroxidation (LP). The results showed that erythromycin (10 µmol/L) caused a significant change in mitochondrial function, ROS formation, mitochondrial swelling, MMP collapse, increasing lipid peroxidation and oxidative stress. 1,25-dihydroxivitamin D3 (10 µmol/L) reverted the effect of erythromycin on the tested parameters . In this study, we showed that erythromycin impairs mitochondrial function and induces mitochondrial toxicity in rat heart isolated mitochondria, which were reverted by calcitriol. These findings suggest that 1,25-dihydroxivitamin D3 may be a preventive/therapeutic strategy for cardiotoxicity complications caused by erythromycin.