Determination of arsenic retention in immune system components by SR-µXRF and EDXRF

QUERALT, IGNASI; SORIA, ELIO A; PEREZ, ROBERTO D.; PEREZ, CARLOS A; BONGIOVANNI, GUILLERMINA A.

ENVIRONMENTAL GEOCHEMISTRY AND HEALTH

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2012

0269-4042

EGAH-ISEG06 in Special Issue 9th International Symposium on Environmental Geochemistry “Environmental contamination: advances in sampling, analytical, data interpretation and remediation techniques” ........................................................................ ABSTRACT: Arsenic (As) is an environmental contaminant which causes cancer and non-cancer diseases. As is readily absorbed by the intestines and it is widely transported by erythrocytes. In some tissues, it is retained and accumulated, thus chronic arsenic exposure may affect several major organ systems. Furthermore, toxicological effects of As are exacerbated by its immuno-regulatory activity. However, there are no reports of As retention in lymphocytes. In this study, As distribution as well as the effect of As on the distributions of other elements were analyzed in spleen, where B and T cells coexist in the white pulp, and erythrocytes mainly in the red pulp. Adult rats consumed water with 50 µg/L As for 60 days. Spleens were removed. Then they were cut into 0.5 mm slides and lyophilized. Slides were analyzed by SR-µXRF (X-ray microfluorescence by Synchrotron radiation) and EDXRF (energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence). High concentration of As was found in lyophilized spleens (~50 µg/g ) in both white and red pulp to a similar extent, while a decrease in Cu was seen in treated animals. Therefore, these techniques allowed us to determine the As-lymphocytes association and the As-related elemental alterations in rat spleen tissues.