Table 2.

Some mechanisms of toxic action proposed for EtHg/thimerosal

Mechanism	Results	Reference(s)
Altered intracellular calcium homeostasis	Mobilization of intracellular Ca++; causes release of mitochondrial Ca++ into the cytosol; attenuates any increase in internal calcium ion concentration	Elferink (1999); Machaty et al. (1999); Sayers et al. (1993); Tornquist et al. (1999); Zarini et al. (2006)
Oxidative stress/reactive oxygen species (ROS)	EtHg causes increase in ROS and depolarization of the mitochondrial membrane; inhibits mitochondrial respiration; increased formation of superoxide and hydrogen peroxide	Sharpe et al. (2012)
Generation of arachidonic acid (AA)	Promotes release of AA; prevents reacylation of AA	Chen et al. (2003); Stuning et al. (1988)
Effects on cell division	Thimerosal destroyed cell spindle, arresting embryonic development	Machaty et al. (1999)
Effects on glutathione activity	Inhibits glutathione-S-transferase T1 (GST T1); depletes GSH	Muller et al. (2001); Wu et al. (2008)
Involvement with nitric oxide synthetase	Causes an increase in NOS	Chen et al. (2003)
Effects glutamate transport	Disrupts glutamate homeostasis by disrupting glutamine/glutamate cycling; decreases GLT-1 levels; significantly inhibition of GLAST activity	Mutkus et al. (2005)