Spangler, Kundi, Wallner et al. 2012b
Spangler, Kundi, Wallner et al. 2012b
SPANGLER, S., M. KUNDI, P. WALLNER, K. WITTMANN, C. GUNDACKER, S. LANG, K. AUMAYR, F. OBERNDORFER & H.-P. HUTTER, 2012. Distribution of mercury in human body compartments: testing the indicator function of mercury in hair. In: International Congress on Environmental Health (ICEH 2012) (Lisboa, Portugal, 29 May -1 June 2012): ET036.
Background: Mercury is a toxic heavy metal which is still regarded as a significant health hazard especially related to its neurotoxicity and nephrotoxicity. The general population is primarily exposed to mercury through diet. Fish consumption is the dominant source of organic mercury. Since organic mercury is incorporated into the root of the hair, its concentration in hair is significantly higher than in blood. The correlation between hair-mercury and blood concentrations, however, is rather good.
Aim of this biomonitoring study was to assess the relationship between hg content of the hair and hg content of inner organs (brain, kidney) to improve the understanding of the consequences of chronic mercury exposure with respect to the distribution within the body and to assess the potential indicator function of hg in hair for the hg values of inner organs.
Methods and Material: Samples were taken from five female and five male corpses at the General Hospital Vienna, Austria (22 to 70 years). Samples were taken from brains (hypothalamus, corpus callosum) and kidneys (renal lobe, renal capsule). Furthermore a strand of scalp hair (occipital region) was cut with ceramic scissors to avoid metallic contamination. Tissue samples were cut into pieces, hair samples were rinsed with de-ionized water. The samples were digested with a mixture of 2 mL 65 vol.% HNO3 and 0.75 mL 30% H2O2 in pressurized teflon vessels in a microwave digestion unit for 40 minutes. The digested solutions were transferred to 20 mL volumetric flasks and finally filled up to 20 mL with de-ionized water. Total mercury concentrations were determined by atomic fluorescence technique, using the AFS Mercur Plus (Analytik Jena AG) apparatus. Quality assurance was achieved by measuring blank test solutions and reference materials.
Results: Analysis of the different human body tissues resulted in the following mean hg concentrations (in ppb): women 11.5 (hair), 0.1 (corpus callosum), 0.1 (hypothalamus), 5.8 (renal lobe); men 17.5 (hair), 0.1 (corpus callosum), 0.4 (hypothalamus), 1.1 (renal lobe). Evaluation showed no correlation between the mercury content of the hair and the kidney tissues, nor between the hair and corpus callosum. Renal capsules were free of mercury. The correlation between hg in hair and hypothalamus was strong enough to be considered significant (R-Spearman=0.8, p=0.005). Also mercury levels of the hypothalamus and renal lobe revealed a significant correlation. A more detailed analysis showed that the mercury concentrations of the hypothalamus independently correlated with the concentrations in hair and renal lobe.
Conclusion: Hg levels in hair correlated significantly with those in the hypothalamus. However, our analysis does not differentiate between organic and inorganic mercury. As mercury accumulates mainly in its organic forms in hair, it does predict hg levels in brain tissue containing significant amounts of organic mercury. From the correlation with hg in kidney lobes it can be concluded that renal concentrations were dominated by inorganic mercury and that hypothalamic regions contain both organic as well as inorganic mercury.
mercury metabolism; mercury exposition; heavy metals; human biomonitoring
Homo sapiens