Comparison of bone marrow toxicity of medium-chain and long-chain triglyceride emulsions: An in vitro study in humans

Background: In this study, we evaluated the in vitro bone marrow toxicity of two lipid emulsions containing either long-chain triglycerides (LCT) or a mixture of medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) and LCT. Methods: Bone marrow cells were obtained from six healthy subjects and were cultured for 14 days after a 24-hour preincubation with various concentrations (from 0 to 10 mg/mL) of LCT-and LCT/MCT-based lipid emulsions. Results: Compared with controls (no preincubation with lipid emulsion), both lipid emulsions significantly inhibited by 50% to 70% colony formation of all the human bone mac-row cells cultured from a triglyceride concentration of 0.5 mg/mL (p < .05). Erythroid burst-fonuing unit (BFU-E) formation was significantly more inhibited with LCT/MCT emulsion than with LCT emulsion (p < .05). The inhibition of granulocyte-macrophage colony-forming unit (GM-CFU) and mixed granulocyte-erythrocyte-monocyte-megakaryocyte colony-forming unit (GEMM-CFU) formation did not significantly differ with the two emulsions. Conclusions: Both LCT-and LCT/MCT-based lipid emulsions strongly inhibit colony formation by human bone marrow cells. BFU-E colony formation is more sensitive to LCT/MCT inhibition than to LCT.