Mercury Toxicity on Sodium Pump and Organoseleniums Intervention: A Paradox

Figure 2

A diagram of the enterohepatic recirculation of methylmercury and its movement to maternal brain, kidney, and hair and to fetal tissues. (a) Methylmercury combines with reduced glutathione to form a complex, (b) which is secreted into bile. This glutathione is hydrolyzed to its constituent amino acids, releasing the methylmercury-cysteine complex. The latter, in part, is reabsorbed in the gallbladder into the bloodstream (c) and, in part, secreted into the intestinal tract along with any unhydrolysed glutathione complex (d). Once in the intestinal tract, it is in part reabsorbed into the portal circulation as the cysteine complex and in part demethylated by intestinal microflora. Most of the inorganic mercury produced in this way is excreted in the feces. The numbers quoted in each body compartment are the relative concentrations of methylmercury and the intakes and excretion rates [72].