SOFT 2004 Meeting Abstracts - Society of Forensic Toxicologists

M43
COCAETHYLENE: A POTENTIALLY LETHAL TOXICANT
Danyel H. Tacker* and Anthony O. Okorodudu: Department of Pathology, University of Texas Medical
Branch, Galveston, TX, USA
Introduction: Cocaethylene (CE) is an active metabolite of cocaine and ethanol, produced by the liver in a
majority of cocaine abusers who concomitantly abuse ethanol. Though the mechanism of death associated
with cocaine overdose has historically been relative to vasospasm and cardiac/cerebral infarct and failure,
we propose a role for CE as a toxicant to the vascular endothelium. We investigated the effects ofCE on
microvascular endothelium to further characterize mechanisms of vasculotoxicity and associated tissue
ischemia.
Methods: An in vitro model of microvascular endothelial CE exposure (ImM) was used. Cytotoxicity
assays included viability and LDH release analysis. Morphological (silver stain) and electricallresistance
analysis was used to determine the effect of CE on monolayer permeability. Analysis of variance for n :: 3
was significant when p