Intracellular accumulation-independent cytotoxicity of pentavalent organoantimony compounds in cultured vascular endothelial cells.

As the field of utilization of organic-inorganic hybrid molecules expands, the toxicology of these compounds is becoming more important. We have shown previously that there is a strong correlation between cytotoxicity and intracellular accumulation detected as metal content, which is modulated by the substituents, of organic-inorganic hybrid molecules. In this study, we investigated the cytotoxicity of pentavalent organoantimony compounds with three phenyl groups on cultured vascular endothelial cells. The results indicated that the cytotoxicity of pentavalent organoantimony compounds was not correlated with the hydrophobicity and intracellular accumulation of these compounds. Therefore, we suggest that hydrophobicity and intracellular accumulation are not necessarily predictive of cytotoxicity in organic-inorganic hybrid molecules.