Kinetics and metabolism of mercury in rats fed with mercury contaminated rice using mass balance and mercury isotope approach

Abstract

Consumption of mercury (Hg) contaminated rice can be a major environmental health issue but the toxicokinetics is not well known. Hg isotopes have been shown to be good tracers in studying Hg exposure and metabolic processes. We established a Hg mass balance and Hg isotope model in rats fed with Hg contaminated rice (THg 51.3 ng/g; MeHg 25 ng/g) for 90 days to investigate Hg toxicokinetics. Overall 80% of feeding THg was recovered in rat body and excrement, while the excrement accounted for 55% of total observed THg in rats. Feces were the main route of Hg elimination in rats, while urinary excretion was negligible. However, only 32% of utilized MeHg was recovered in rats, indicating significant demethylation of MeHg in rat body. Positive net fractionations of δ202Hg (relative to the feeding rice) were observed in hair and blood samples (1.21‰ and 1.25‰, respectively), which have similar trend with the results obtained in human hair study, exhibiting higher δ202Hg values (2‰– 3‰) than consumed fish and rice. Most importantly, we observed negative net fractionations in feces (−0.44‰), which confirmed the missed Hg with negative δ202Hg signal. We concluded that mass balance and Hg isotope are useful tools for quantifying toxicokinetics of Hg. Demethylation of MeHg in the intestine were the important detoxification process in rat body characterizing with negative net Hg fractionations in feces.