Tissue distribution of different mercurial compounds analyzed by the improved FI-CVAAS.

Mercury contents in biological samples can be measured by cold vapor atomic absorption spectroscopy combined with the flow-injection analysis system. However, water vapor in the absorption cell attenuated and distorted the signals. This study described the strategy to overcome this problem by adding an additional gas-liquid separator after the mixing/separator assembly. This modification can efficiently minimize the moisture in the transfer line and in the absorption cell. This improved technique was adopted to study the differential tissue distribution of methylmercury and HgS after oral administration to mice for five consecutive days. The present study suggests that the insoluble HgS (the main constituent of a Chinese mineral drug, cinnabar, used as a sedative) can still be absorbed from gastrointestinal tract and distributed to various tissues including the brain. As compared with methylmercury, the total amount of HgS accumulated in the tissues ranging about one five-thousandth of methylmercury, which is well correlated with the biological activity of HgS reported previously.