EESA10H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Organic Form, Bioavailability, Intellectual Disability
20 Apr 2012
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Some of the heavy metals have a tendency to accumulate in specific tissues eg arsenic in hair, nails. Some metals in liver, others in bone or brain. We can look for specific metals in certain tissues using this knowledge. Class a these metals are macronutrients eg calcium found in bones. Very low toxicity, but we don"t say that they aren"t toxic. Class b not essential to physiological processes e. g. lead, mercury. Borderline essential for some physiological processes, but not in large amounts (micronutrients) such as copper, zinc, iron. In terms of toxicity, they are in between a and b. Mess up the function of carrier or receptor protein. Displace other metals that are not as toxic e. g. chromium replacing calcium. (borderline or b class metals do this). The metals can change the conformation of some biomolecules from the active into the inactive form (class b metals do this). Resistance no uptake of the metal.
