In vitro studies on interaction of mercuric mercury and selenite in rabbit blood.

The behaviors of inorganic mercury and selenite in rabbit blood, added in vitro individually or in combination, were investigated. Inorganic mercury incorporated into erythrocyte in the absence of selenite was mainly present in the fractions which were eluted from Sephadex G-200 column just after hemoglobin. On the other hand selenium incorporated into erythrocyte in the absence of mercury was eluted in hemoglobin fractions and also in those which are almost completely retained by the column. In the combination experiment, however, the incorporation of mercury and selenium was remarkably enhanced and the increased amounts of both the compounds were eluted together with each other around the void volume region of the Sephadex G-200 column. The existing state of mercury and selenium in the high-molecular weight fractions and the effects of some metabolic inhibitors on the behavior of these compounds in blood were also studied.