Metabolism of tellurium, antimony and germanium simultaneously administered to rats

Recently, tellurium (Te), antimony (Sb) and germanium (Ge) have been used as an alloy in phase-change optical magnetic disks, such as digital versatile disk-random access memory (DVD-RAM) and DVD-recordable disk (DVD-RW). Although these metalloids, the so-called "exotic" elements, are known to be non-essential and harmful, little is known about their toxic effects and metabolism. Metalloid compounds, tellurite, antimonite and germanium dioxide, were simultaneously administered to rats. Their distributions metabolites were determined and identified by speciation. Te and Sb accumulated in red blood cells (RBCs): Te accumulated in RBCs in the dimethylated form, while Sb accumulated in the inorganic/non-methylated form. In addition, trimethyltelluronium (TMTe) was the urinary metabolite of Te, whereas Sb in urine was not methylated but oxidized. Ge was also not methylated in rats. These results suggest that each metalloid is metabolized via a unique pathway.