The Se, an essential nutrient, plays an important role in antioxi

The Se, an essential nutrient, plays an important role in antioxidant enzymes such as glutathione peroxidase and thioredoxin reductase (Tapiero et al., 2003). It is also well established

that Se can counteract the toxicity of various elements in animals, especially that of Hg2 + and MeHg (Beyrouty Akt inhibitor and Chan, 2006, El-Begearmi et al., 1982, Fredriksson et al., 1993, Ganther et al., 1972 and Satoh et al., 1985). Moreover, Se is known to coexist with Hg in fish and sea mammals (Burger and Gochfeld, 2007, Burger et al., 2007 and Cabanero et al., 2005), and may play a role in protecting against MeHg toxicity. We recently demonstrated that selenomethionine, a food-derived Se, directly protected against neuronal degeneration caused by MeHg in the developing rat cerebrum (Sakamoto et al., 2013). The main objectives of the present study were: 1) to investigate the role of the placenta in the transfer of various trace elements from mother to fetus during gestation, by comparing the element concentrations in chorionic tissue of placenta and cord tissue; and 2) to assess the potential use of trace element concentrations in placenta and cord tissue for predicting their body burden in mothers and newborns during gestation, by studying the relationships of the element concentrations

Neratinib among chorionic tissue of placenta and cord tissue as well as maternal and cord RBCs. Approximately 1 week before parturition, a total of 48 healthy Japanese pregnant women without any known exposure to heavy metals provided written informed consent to participate either in the study. The women were aged between 21 and 41 years (mean age: 29.3 ± 4.2 years), and resided in Munakata City, Fukuoka, Japan. The babies were born healthy after full-term pregnancies (37–41 months), and comprised 25 males and 23 females. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the National Institute for Minamata Disease

(NIMD). Placenta, umbilical cord tissue for 5 cm on the fetus side, and venous umbilical cord blood (13 mL) were collected from the 48 pairs of mothers and infants at parturition between May and December 2002. Venous maternal blood (10 mL) was collected before breakfast on the first day after parturition. The blood samples were obtained by venipuncture and collected in heparin-containing vacutainer tubes. RBCs were obtained by centrifugation at 3000 rpm for 10 min. All samples were stored at − 80 °C until analysis. Chorionic tissue of the placenta was separated from the placenta using scissors. The chorionic tissue of the placenta and cord tissue were rinsed five times with 0.9% saline and pressed using paper towels each time to remove the blood, and then freeze-dried. The reason for using freeze-dried cord tissue was that 48 paires of T-Hg in cord RBCs showed a better correlation coefficient with T-Hg in freeze-dried cord tissue (rs = 0.85) than with T-Hg in wet cord tissue (rs = 0.82) in a preliminary experiment. Grandjean et al.

Comments are closed.