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Triamcinolone vehicle causes significant RPE cell death, study finds
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Triamcinolone acetonide suspensions with a benzyl alcohol vehicle can cause significant retinal pigment epithelial cell death, according to researchers in Taiwan.
Yi-Sheng Chang, MD, and colleagues at the National Cheng Kung University exposed cultured human retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells to one of seven solutions for up to 2 hours. The solutions included a balanced salt solution (BSS, Alcon) as a control, a commercial triamcinolone acetonide suspension, a commercial triamcinolone acetonide suspension with its benzyl alcohol vehicle removed, the vehicle alone and each solution diluted with 1:10 BSS, according to the study.
The researchers found similarly significant amounts of RPE cell damage in cultures exposed to the vehicle-containing solutions for 1 hour or longer. The damage was both dose- and time-dependent, the authors reported.
"The major mechanism of cell death was necrosis, and the early ultrastructural change was swelling of organelles in the cytoplasm," they said.
The vehicle-removed solutions caused no cell damage and showed a similar effect to the control, they noted.
The study is published in the July issue of Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science.