In vitro mercury uptake by human acatalasemic erythrocytes

Human acatalasemic erythrocytes had only 0.01 to 0.06X the uptake found in normal erythrocytes with hydrogen peroxide, and 0.06 to 0.24X the uptake without hydrogen peroxide in regard to their ability of in vitro mercury uptake from air saturated with mercury vapor. Normal erythrocytes with hydrogen peroxide took up 9.3 to 37.4X more mercury than cells without hydrogen peroxide, whereas acatalesemic cells with hydrogen peroxide took up 2.4 to 5.8X more mercury than cells without hydrogen peroxide. Similar results were obtained from normal and acatalasemic hemolysates. In addition, the concentration of hydrogen peroxide affected the uptake of mercury by both normal and acatalasemic erythrocytes. Data indicate that the catalase-hydrogen peroxide system plays a role in mercury uptake, presumably by mercury oxidation, since oxidation states of the mercury were never determined in these studies.