Faculty of Life Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PT, UK.
Biometals. 2010 Apr;23(2):221-30. doi: 10.1007/s10534-009-9280-x. Epub 2009 Nov 25.
Aluminum is a toxic metal whose complex aquatic chemistry, mechanisms of toxicity and trophic transfer are not fully understood. The only isotope of Al suitable for tracing experiments in organisms-(26)Al-is a rare, costly radioisotope with a low emission energy, making its use difficult. Gallium shares a similar chemistry with Al and was therefore investigated as a potential substitute for Al for use in aquatic organisms. The freshwater snail, Lymnaea stagnalis was exposed to either Al or Ga (0.0135 mM) under identical conditions for up to 40 days. Behavioural toxicity, metal accumulation in the tissues, and sub-cellular partitioning of the metals were determined. Al was more toxic than Ga and accumulated to significantly higher levels in the soft tissues (P < 0.05). The proportion of Al in the digestive gland (DG; detoxificatory organ) relative to other tissues was significantly lower than that of Ga (P < 0.05) from day 14 onwards. There were also differences in the proportions of Al and Ga associated with heat stable proteins (HSPs) in the digestive gland, with significantly more HSP present in the DGs of snails exposed to Al, but significantly less Al than Ga associated with the HSP per unit mass protein present. From this evidence, we conclude that Ga may be of limited use as a tracer for Al in animal systems.
铝是一种有毒金属，其复杂的水化学性质、毒性机制和营养转移机制尚未完全了解。唯一适合用于生物体示踪实验的铝同位素-(26)Al-是一种稀有、昂贵的放射性同位素，其发射能量低，因此使用起来较为困难。镓与铝具有相似的化学性质，因此被研究作为替代铝在水生生物中应用的潜在替代品。将淡水蜗牛（Lymnaea stagnalis）在相同条件下暴露于铝或镓（0.0135 mM）中，最长可达 40 天。测定了行为毒性、组织中金属的积累以及金属的亚细胞分布。铝比镓毒性更大，在软组织中的积累水平明显更高（P < 0.05）。从第 14 天开始，铝在消化腺（DG；解毒器官）中的比例相对于其他组织明显低于镓（P < 0.05）。铝和镓与消化腺中热稳定蛋白（HSP）的比例也存在差异，暴露于铝的蜗牛的 DG 中存在更多的 HSP，但与 HSP 相关的单位质量蛋白中的铝明显少于镓。有鉴于此，我们得出结论，镓可能在动物系统中作为铝示踪剂的用途有限。
