Protective effect of CoCl₂ on vancomycin-induced apoptosis of human renal tubular epithelial cells

ObjectiveTo investigate the effect of CoCl₂ on protecting vancomycin （VAN）-induced apoptosis of the human renal tubular epithelial cell line HK-2.MethodsHK-2 cells were cultured <italic>in vitro</italic>， and treated with blank control， 40 μg/mL VAN for 48 h， or pretreatment of 50 μmol/L CoCl₂ for 6 h plus 40 μg/mL VAN for 48 h. Cell growth inhibition， and apoptotic rate were detected by cell counting kit-8 （CCK-8） assay and flow cytometry， respectively. Protein levels of HIF-1α and apoptosis-associated proteins （Caspase-3， Bcl-2） were detected by Western blot.ResultsCCK-8 assay showed that VAN dose-dependently inhibited the proliferation of HK-2 cells. Compared with blank control， VAN significantly induced apoptosis in HK-2 cells （<italic>P</italic>&lt;0.05）. The apoptotic rate was significantly lower in CoCl₂-pretreated HK-2 cells induced with VAN than those solely induced with VAN （<italic>P</italic>&lt;0.05）. qRT-PCR and Western blot showed no significant differences in the mRNA and protein levels of HIF-1α between VAN-induced HK-2 cells and blank control （<italic>P</italic>&gt;0.05）， which were significantly upregulated in CoCl₂-pretreated HK-2 cells induced with VAN than those solely induced with VAN （<italic>P</italic>&lt;0.05）. Caspase-3 was significantly upregulated， and Bcl-2 was significantly downregulated in VAN-induced HK-2 cells than blank control， which were significantly reversed by the pretreatment of CoCl₂ （<italic>P</italic>&lt;0.05）.ConclusionApoptosis is involved in VAN-induced HK-2 cells， and CoCl₂protects cellular damage in VAN-induced HK-2 cells by inhibiting cell apoptosis.