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Whole body and liver distribution of inhaled mercury vapor in the mouse: Influence of ethanol and aminotriazole pretreatment
Author(s) -
Khayat Amir,
Dencker Lennart
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
journal of applied toxicology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.784
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1099-1263
pISSN - 0260-437X
DOI - 10.1002/jat.2550030203
Subject(s) - mercury (programming language) , parenchyma , inhalation , chemistry , ethanol , lung , endocrinology , medicine , thyroid , acetaldehyde , pathology , biology , biochemistry , anatomy , computer science , programming language
Inhalation of radioactive metallic mercury vapor ( 203 H°) in the mouse resulted in an accumulation of mercury in several organs where no specific uptake was observed after i.v. injection of inorganic mercury ( 203 Hg 2+ ). This was true for the whole respiratory epithelium (including the lung parenchyma), myocardium, brain, retina of the eye, adrenal cortex, corpora lutea of the ovary, epididymis, brown fat and thyroid gland. It is assumed that these organs have a high capacity for oxidizing Hg° to Hg 2+ , which will then be retained in the tissues. Ethanol and aminotriazole (catalase inhibitors) decreased the concentration in several of these organs, although not in an exactly similar pattern. In the livers of non‐treated animals, most of the inhaled mercury accumulated in the hepatocytes in the periphery of the lobuli (periportal region), close to where the blood vessels enter the liver parenchyma. Treatment with ethanol or aminotriazole increased the liver mercury content, with more or less all the hepatocytes apparently engaged in the oxidation of Hg°.