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pubmed:abstractText |
Adult male rats were treated with triethyl lead chloride (TEL) by subcutaneous injection of 7.9 mg/kg body weight, 75% of the LD50. Various brain regions and serum were collected at several times after dosing. Binding of 45Ca, 3H-nitrendipine, 3H-ouabain, and 3H-glutamate to hippocampal membranes was not altered by treatment. Levels of 3',5'-cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase were unchanged in the hippocampus between 1 and 28 d after treatment. Three zinc-containing enzymes were assayed in the hippocampus. Leucine aminopeptidase levels were unchanged by treatment, whereas glutamate dehydrogenase activity was depressed only at the 28-d point. Superoxide dismutase activity was greatly elevated after 1 of 7 d post-dosing, but this was reversed at later times. An elevated level of this enzyme was also found in the cortex of TEL-exposed rats and in the hippocampus of rats treated with 75% of the LD50 of trimethyl lead chloride (25 mg/kg body weight). However, levels of lipid peroxide were unchanged in the hippocampus of treated rats as were values for the selenium-requiring enzyme, glutathione peroxidase. TEL does not appear to inhibit a wide range of processes relating to essential divalent cations or to cause nonspecific damage to cerebral membranes. TEL is likely to act on a limited and distinctive range of vulnerable loci.
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