Metabolic alterations in liver and kidney following chronic methyl mercury treatment and withdrawal

Daily intraperitoneal injection of methyl mercury (0.4 and 4 mg/kg) for 45 days to rats decreased liver size without producing any significant change in adrenal, cardiac, renal, testicular, and body weight. Chronic exposure to either dose of this organomercurial augmented the activities of renal and hepatic pyruvate carboxylase, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase, fructose 1,6-diphosphatase and glucose 6-phosphatase, elevated the concentration of blood glucose and urea, as well as reduced liver glycogen content. As expected, the degree of alterations in various parameters studied was greater in animals which were injected with the higher dose (4 mg/kg) of methyl mercury. Furthermore, withdrawal of treatment for 28 days in rats that had previously been given the 4 mg/kg daily dose of methyl mercury for 45 days, generally failed to reverse the observed metabolic changes in hepatic and renal carbohydrate metabolism. Our results suggest that the gluconeogenic potential of both liver and kidney is markedly enhanced in animals chronically treated with methyl mercury and that the metabolic alterations persist even after a 28 day period of abstinence from heavy metal treatment.