The effect of experimental methyl mercury poisoning on the distribution of acid phosphatase during autolysis in cat liver.

Seven healthy male cats weighing between 2.35 and 4.30 kg were daily fed a diet which contained Hg labelled methyl mercury hydroxide in liver homogenate. Eight additional cats were kept as controls on a similar diet without methyl mercury hydroxide. The daily amount of methyl mercury hydroxide fed to the cats, expressed as inorganic mercury, varied between 3.75 and 4.33 mg per cat. When the animals had developed neurological symptoms typical of methyl mercury poisoning, they were decapitated and their livers removed for the determination of the mercury content, the distribution of acid phosphatase during autolysis at 37°G, the pH and the total bacterial count before and after a 24 hr. period of autolysis. Similar determinations except for the mercury were made from the livers of the control animals. The total amount of methyl mercury hydroxide fed to the cats varied between 29.14 and 40.12 mg Hg++ per kg of body weight, and the mercury content in their livers between 102.5 and 128.7 mg Hg++ per kg of liver wet weight. The share of un sedimentable activity of acid phosphatase out of the total immediately after decapitation was found to be significantly (P < 0.001) greater in the livers of the methyl mercury-fed cats than in the livers of the control animals. After 12 to 24 hrs. of autolysis at 37 °G the unsedimentable activity accounted for 100 % of the total acid phosphatase activity in the livers of 6 of the 7 methyl mercury-fed animals, while in the livers of the controls the corresponding percentages varied after 24 hrs. of incubation between 42 and 73, the mean being 57.4 ± 11.4 %. The mean pH of the livers of the methyl mercury fed animals was found to be significantly higher before (P< 0.001) and after (P < 0.001) a 24 hr. incubation at 37 °G than the corresponding mean pH values of the control animals. Because of the injection of antibiotics given to the cats before sacrifice the total bacterial count of the livers, which was checked before and after a 24 hr. incubation at 37°G, was found to be zero.