Abstract
Six adult female rats were daily fed a diet containing DL-ethionine during three weeks. One daily rat dose was 30 mg of ethionine. Six similar rats, the controls, were kept on the same diet without ethionine. On the 21st day of the experiment all rats were given one dose of 203Hg labeled methyl mercury by stomach tube. Each rat received 163 µg in terms of metallic mercury. Ninety hrs. after the mercury administration all rats were sacrificed and the mercury contents of the brains, livers, caudal femoral muscles, erythrocytes and blood plasma were determined. The mean plasma mercury content was significantly (P<0.01) greater in the ethionine fed rats when compared to the controls.
Keyword: methylmercury retention, ethionine
Sammanfattning
Sex fullvuxna hanråttor utfodrades dagligen under tre veckor med ett foder som innehöl DL-ethionin. Den dagliga dosen för en råtta var 30 mg ethionin. Sex likadana råttor, kontrollerna, fick samma foder utan ethionin. På den tjugoförsta dagen från experimentets början gavs alla råttor med en magsond 163 μg 203Hg märkt metylkvicksilver. Nittio timmar efter kvicksilvergivan avlivades råttorna och kvicksilverhalten i deras hjärnor, levrar, kaudala femorala muskler, röda blodkroppar och i blodplasma bestämdes. Plasmans genomsnittliga kvicksilverhalt var signifikant (P < 0,01) större i de med ethionin utfodrade råttorna jämfört med kontrollerna.
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Footnotes
This work was supported by the National Research Council for Medical Sciences in Finland.
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