Biological function of metallothionein. VI. Metabolic interaction of cadmium and zinc in rats

Influence of high dietary lead on selenium metabolism in dairy calves

Metabolism of orally dosed 75Se was studied in 10 intact male Holstein calves that were fed ad libitum a control diet containing no added Pb or supplemented with 1000 ppm Pb as PbSO4 for 4 wk. Lead-supplemented calves did not exhibit any clinical signs of Pb toxicity. Voluntary feed intake was reduced by 9.5% and average daily gain by 23%. Lead content of rib, liver, and kidney increased. Serum glutamic oxaloacetate transaminase activity was increased during the last 2 wk of the experiment in calves fed Pb. In calves receiving supplemental Pb, 75Se absorption, blood concentration, and urine concentration were reduced by 26, 21, and 42%, respectively. Tissue 75Se concentrations were significantly lower in kidney, liver, testicle, pancreas, small intestine, heart, spinal cord, and muscle in calves fed Pb. There was a significant negative correlation (r = -.78) between 75Se and stable Pb concentrations in the liver. It is not clear whether the ingestion of subclinical amounts of Pb could affect the absorption and utilization of Se in dairy calves to the extent of Se deficiency when dairy calves are kept in areas known to be low in Se.

Cadmium-induced suppression of the primary immune response and acute toxicity in mice: differential interaction of zinc

Four groups of 6-week-old C3H mice were injected sc with either sterile saline, 2.8 mg Cd/kg body weight, 2.8 mg Zn/kg body weight, or 2.8 mg each of Cd and Zn/kg body weight. Forty-eight hours after the initial injection, all mice received a second dose of their respective treatments plus an iv injection of sheep red blood cells. On Days 2, 3, 4, and 5 postimmunization the mice were killed. Spleen cells were used in a hemolytic plaque-forming assay for the quantitation of the primary humoral response. Although the combined administration of zinc and cadmium completely prevented the fatal effects of the cadmium (0 vs 55% mortality), zinc failed to alleviate the cadmium-induced inhibition of the humoral response.

Inducibility and amounts of metallothionein as influenced by cadmium and zinc in the developing rat

Information on the accumulation and/or depletion of Zn in metallothionein (MT) of rat fetus, rat pup, and maternal rat liver at various ages was obtained with pregnant rats fed a basal casein diet or this diet plus either 100 ppm Zn or 50 ppm Cd. Rats fed each of the respective diets were sacrificed on 12, 16, and 20 d of gestation and 0, 7, 14, and 28 d post-partum. No Cd was detected in the placenta or fetal tissue and the Cd did not affect the accumulation of Zn in the fetal MT, but it did increase the Zn content in liver MT of the dams. Very little Zn in MT was found on day 12 of gestation, but Zn rapidly increased in MT to a maximum at time of birth. The accumulation of Zn in MT was independent of the diet for the fetuses, but the Zn accumulation in the dam and pup tissues was diet dependent. In order to study age-dependent difference in the inducibility of MT, newborn, 5-week-old, or 24-week-old rats were injected with zinc at the levels of 0, 3, 6, or 9 mg/kg and 5 h later injected with(35)S-cystine. In rats sacrificed 1 h later, the amount of radioactivity in liver MT demonstrated that this protein in older animals was more readily induced by Zn than in younger animals.

Effects of dietary mercury level and cadmium on rat tissue metallothionein: mercury binding and influences on zinc

Feeding low levels of mercury in diets for rats resulted in its deposition with metallothionein (MT) in the kidney, but not in the liver. The addition of high levels of mercury to diets for rats caused the accumulation of mercury in kidney MT and to a much lesser extent in this low-molecular-weight protein in the liver. The accumulation of mercury in MT also caused zinc to accumulate in it. Treatment of rats with cadmium caused dietary mercury to accumulate in MT in the liver. Feeding stable mercury in the diet caused an increased uptake of labeled mercury in rat kidney MT, but in contrast, caused a decreased content in the liver MT. The mercury proteins from liver and kidney were purified and the amino acid analyses indicated that they are MT. Thus, MT binds low levels of mercury likely to be found in the environment in the kidney but not in the liver.

Rat liver metabollothionein interactions of silver, zinc, and cadmium

Weanling rats were fed diets either alone or with combinations of silver, elevated zinc, or elevated cadmium for 7 weeks. The rats were then killed, and the silver, zinc, and cadmium proteins isolated from the livers by gel filtration and ion exchange chromatography. When silver was fed alone in diet, low levels of this metal were eluted as two peaks from the ion exchange column. In contrast, when silver was fed with cadmium or elevated zinc, three metal-containing peaks were eluted from this ion exchange column. Amino acid analysis revealed that the major proteins binding these metals are metallothioneins, as judged by high cysteine content.

Tissue metallothionein: dietary interaction of cadmium and zinc with copper, mercury, and silver

The interaction of dietary Cd and Zn with Cu, Hg, and Ag in relation to tissue metallothionein (MT) was studied with rats. Dietary Cd was found to increase the deposition of Cu and Ag in liver and kidney MT. Cd also caused accumulation of Hg in liver MT but depletion of Hg in kidney MT. In contrast to Cd, high dietary levels of Zn had no influence on the deposition of these metals in MT when they were included in the diet. When Zn was fed in the diet and Cu, Cd, Hg, and Ag were injected into rats, Zn caused increased deposition of these metals in MT, suggesting an interaction at the intestinal level. Hg and Cd were distributed between the two species of MT, but Cu was found predominantly in one of the MT species. Evidence was obtained that Ag was bound to a different MT species than Hg, Cu, or Cd when included in the diet containing Cd.

Interactions of zinc and selenium on the binding of cadmium to rat tissue proteins

The administration of cadmium to rats by either oral or injection routes causes zinc to accumulate in the low molecular weight (MW) protein metallothionein (MT) of liver and kidney, but not in a low MW protein in the testis. Preliminary evidence indicates that the low MW cadmium-binding protein in testes is not MT. Feeding high levels of zinc to rats results in its accumulation with tissue MT, and the zinc is very labile. In contrast, the zinc that accumulates in MT as the result of cadmium exposure is not very labile. In the reverse situation, zinc does not cause cadmium to accumulate in MT. The turnover of MT is shorter when saturated with zinc than when cadmium is the predominant metal bound to it. Even though selenium will counteract testicular damage due to cadmium, it causes cadmium to accumulate in this organ at higher levels than in animals exposed to cadmium without selenium. Injection of selenate, and selenide--but not selenomethionine or selenocystine--diverts the binding of injected cadmium from low MW proteins to high MW ones in the testes. Selenium injections had only minor influences on the binding of zinc to testicular proteins. In contrast, very little diversion occurred in the binding of either cadmium or zinc in tissues of rats fed high levels of selenium. The data suggest that it is the selenide form of selenium that causes the diversion of cadmium binding in tissues, thus providing protection of testes against cadmium exposure.