S. Choudhuri et al., CADMIUM ACCUMULATION AND METALLOTHIONEIN EXPRESSION IN BRAIN OF MICE AT DIFFERENT STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT, Toxicology letters, 84(3), 1996, pp. 127-133
Cadmium accumulation and metallothionein (MT) expression were studied
in brains of adult mice as well as at different stages of development,
MT expression was also studied in the eye of adult mice as well as at
different stages of development, Using northern blot analysis with to
tal RNA, MT mRNAs were not detected in day 16 through day 18 embryos o
r in postnatal animals up to day 14. Detectable expression of MT-I, -I
I, and -III mRNAs was obtained in brains of 30- and 60-day-old mice, T
he expression of MT-III mRNA appeared to be much stronger in adults (1
2 weeks old or more) than in 30- and 60-day-old animals, In contrast,
there was similar expression of MT-I and -II in 30- and 60-day-old mic
e, Cd distribution to brain was found to decrease with age; the brains
of 7-day-old mice contained about 4-times more Cd than that of adult
mice. Thus, an inverse correlation was observed between MT expression
and Cd accumulation in brain.