Influence of Sex and Dietary Calcium on Intestinal Cadmium Absorption in Rats

Abstract

The influence of sex and dietary calcium on whole-body retention of orally administered 115mCdCl2 has a half-life of 43 days, distinguishing it from 115Cd of half-life 2.3 days was studied in one-year-old control and gonadectomized male and female rats. Gonadectomy was performed at the age of four months. Each of the four experimental groups was divided into three subgroups that were fed rat food with a different calcium content (2.4, 0.7, and 0.3% Ca) throughout the experiment. Regardless of sex and gonadectomy the mean percent values of 115mCd retention in the whole body decreased with increasing dietary calcium level. Male rats retained less cadmium than all other experimental groups of animals. These data clearly point out that sex and diet might influence the level of ingested cadmium in the body.

Cadmium content of indicator and target organs in rats after graded doses of cadmium

“…51 Our results are therefore in accordance with those of Kello,et a/. 40 It has previously been shown that kidney cortex and liver are primary targets for Cd, 3 " 6 -20 but Cd can also accumulate to a lesser degree in other soft tissues, as spleen, heart and muscle. 3 -5 ' 11 " 14 -52 Our results confirm this, as all experimental groups had significantly raised Cd levels in the soft tissues, except for muscle of the 5 and 7.5 ppm Cd group and adrenal glands of the 2.5 and 5 ppm Cd group (see Tables I and II).…”

Absorption of Cadmium

“…Women have also been shown to accumulate more Cd than do men (SUMINO et al 1975). Support for the view that these findings might reflect increased Cd absorption in the female was provided by KELLO et al (1979 a) who observed that whole body retention of Cd by rats 6 days following an oral load was 0.47 ± 0.05% (SE) ofthe dose in females, compared with 0.23 ± 0.06% in normal and 0.40 ± 0.02% in castrated males.…”

The effects of age and sex on seven elements in Sprague-Dawley rat organs

“…This is different from the results obtained with mercury. The difference in whole-body retention of cadmium using control male, control female and gonadectomized mice of both sexes was examined by Kello et al (1979). They reported that the control female group had the highest whole-body retention rate.…”