An Association of Mercury with Selenium in Inorganic Mercury Intoxication

Abstract

1 Energy dispersive X-ray analysis was performed on the renal tubular cells of two patients with inorganic mercury intoxication.

2 Some lysosomes of these cells consisted of unusual matrices of aggregated electron-dense grains which were positive for mercury, selenium and sulphur.

3 Though maps of the specific X-rays of both mercury and selenium coincided exactly with these lysosomes, the molecular ratio of selenium to mercury ranged between zero and 2.9.

4 It is unlikely that the trace element of selenium and exogenous inorganic mercury are deposited in the lysosomes independent of each other, but rather their coexistence in the characteristic lysosomes strongly suggests a compound formed by binding mercury to the SeH residues of selenoprotein.