Increased cadmium resistance of skin fibroblasts from Menkes disease patients.

Cultured skin fibroblasts from patients with Menkes disease and Wilson disease were analyzed as to their sensitivities to copper and cadmium by means of a colony-forming ability and cell growth study. All the Menkes strains exhibited about 3-fold higher levels of resistance to cadmium, whereas the cytotoxicity of copper did not differ among the Menkes, Wilson and normal fibroblast strains. The resistance to cadmium of Menkes skin fibroblasts may provide a diagnostic marker of Menkes disease and useful or valuable model for the understanding of detoxification system against heavy metals.