Probing the metal-homeostatis effects of the administration of chromium(vi) to mice by ICP MS and size-exclusion chromatography-ICP MS.

Concentrations of chromium, copper, iron, manganese and zinc were determined in liver, kidney, brain, lung, heart and testis of mouse following intraperitoneal injection of hexavalent chromium [Cr(vi)] at a single dose of 8.0 mg Cr/kg. As result, chromium concentrations increased ca. 40-fold in liver and kidney and by a factor of 3-5 in all the other tissues. The homeostasis of Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn was also affected. The element molecular weight distribution was evaluated in the cytosols of the different mouse organs by size-exclusion chromatography (Superdex-75) with UV-VIS and ICP-MS detection. The administration of Cr(vi) resulted in differences in the elution profiles of Fe, Mn, Cu and Zn-protein complexes. Bioinduced Mn, Fe and Zn-binding proteins could be detected in some tissues, especially in liver and kidney. Different molecular weight fractions containing chromium were heartcut and submitted to tryptic digestion prior to MALDI MS analysis. Cr-peptide complexes could be obtained both in non-denaturing and in denaturing (in the presence of urea and DTT) conditions. They were isolated by size-exclusion chromatography with a smaller separation range (Superdex Peptide) but could not be identified by MALDI MS.