Toxicokinetic study of rat intestinal brush border membrane enzymes following in vitro exposure to lead and vanadium

Abstract

The intestinal brush border membrane is highly specialized plasma membrane responsible for digestive and absorptive functions and their closed vesicles retain the original orientation of the membrane. Exposure of gastrointestinal tract to lead and vanadium through food and water is inadvertently possible. Vanadium is an essential element present in the living organism in trace amount but is toxic when introduced in excessive dose to animals and humans. In atmosphere, lead comes from a wide variety of natural and anthropogenic sources. In children the toxic effect of this metal is due to ingestion of lead containing materials like paper, pencil etc. These heavy metals also have high affinity to remain bound to mammalian tissues and have rich capacity to combine with specific biochemical ligands such as sulphydryl, amino, carboxyl, and phenoxy groups as well as imidazole residues. These properties can Influence the structure function relationship of enzymes. The effect of lead and vanadium have mainly been focussed on brain, kidney and heart membrane ATPase. However, the effect of these metals on intestinal brush border membrane enzymes have not been investigated extensively. The present study was undertaken to investigate the in vitro effect of these heavy metals on the activities of ratmore » intestinal brush border membrane enzymes. 20 refs., 4 figs., 1 tab.« less