Protective Effects of Vitamin C and NAC on the Toxicity of Rifampin on Hepg2 Cells

Rifampin, an antibiotic widely used for the treatment of mycobacterial infections, produceshepatic, renal and bone marrow toxicity in human and animals. In this study, the protectiveeffects of vitamin C and n-acetylcysteine (NAC) on the toxicity of rifampin on HepG2 cellswere investigated.Human hepatoma cells (HepG2) were cultured in 96-well M of rifampin in the presence ofmicroplate and exposed to 10, 20, 50 and 100 vitamin C (0.1 mg/mL) and NAC (0.2 mg/mL).Protective effect of the two drugs against rifampin toxicity was assessed by MTT assay.Results show that both vitamin C and NAC significantly inhibited HepG2 cellular damagedue to rifampin, and vitamin C was relatively more potent than NAC. Rifampin is metabolizedby the liver and its toxic metabolites are responsible for the drug›s hepatic toxicity. Based onour results, it seems that reactive metabolites are the main agents responsible for rifampinhepatotoxicity. The importance of this finding is that if vitamin C or NAC do not affect theantibacterial activity of rifampin, they could be used as preventive agents in rifampin users.