Abstract
Previously we found that exposure to mercury vapor effectively induced metallothionein (MT) biosynthesis in rat brain. Although the induction of not only MT-I/II but also MT-III was evident, the induction rate of the latter was much lower than that of the former. The brain of an MT-null mouse lacks MT-I/II, but has MT-III. Here we examined the effects of sub-chronic pulse exposure to mercury vapor on the brain MT in MT-null mice and their wild type controls. MT-null and wild type mice were preliminarily exposed to mercury vapor for 2 weeks at 0.1 mg Hg/m3 for 1 h/day for 3 days a week, and then exposed for 11 weeks at 4.1 mg Hg/m3 for 30 min/day for 3 days a week. This exposure caused no toxic signs such as abnormal behavior or loss of body weight gain in the mice of either strain throughout the experimental period. Twenty-four hours after the termination of the exposure, mice were sacrificed and brain samples were subjected to mercury analysis, MT assay, and pathological examination. The MT-null mice showed lower accumulation of mercury in the brain than the wild type mice. Mercury exposure resulted in a 70% increase of brain MT in the wild type mice, which was mostly accounted for by the increase in MT-I/II. On the other hand, the brain MT in the MT-null mice increased by 19%, suggesting less reactivity of the MT-III gene to mercury vapor. Although histochemical examination revealed silver-mercury grains in the cytoplasm of nerve cells and glial cells throughout the brains of both strains, no significant difference was observed between the two strains.
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Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Ms. M. Ogata and Ms. A. Hyodo for their technical assistance in the Hg analysis. The experimental protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee for Research on Animals in the National Institute for Minamata Disease.
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Yasutake, A., Sawada, M., Shimada, A. et al. Mercury accumulation and its distribution to metallothionein in mouse brain after sub-chronic pulse exposure to mercury vapor. Arch Toxicol 78, 489–495 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00204-004-0572-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00204-004-0572-1