Ameliorative capacities of vitamins and monothiols post therapy in the restoration of methylmercury altered glutathione metabolism.

The recovery of glutathione and its metabolising enzymes (glutathione disulfide reductase, glutathione peroxidase, thiol transferase, gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase and glutathione transferase) along with sulfhydryl groups and byproduct of lipid peroxidation (malondialdehyde) in the brain, spinal cord, kidney and liver of mice, altered during methylmercury chloride (MMC) intoxication, is recorded in post-therapeutic treatment with vitamins and monothiols. For this purpose ten groups of animals were intoxicated with 1 mg/kg MMC/day for 7 days. Out of these, one group was sacrificed on 8th day and one group was kept without toxicant for another seven days before sacrificing on 15th day. Study shows significant decrease of various biomolecules of glutathione metabolism during MMC application, which are further decreased with increasing the duration on 15th day. The trend is same in all the tissues with few exceptions. However, malondialdehyde, a byproduct of lipid peroxidation, is increased with increasing the duration after intoxication. Study also shows a significant recovery (in many cases a complete control level) of most of the components with one or the other chelator or with their combined therapy. Therefore, it is concluded from overall study that vitamins B complex and E, GSH (or its precursor NAHT) either alone or in combinations, are quite suitable for methylmercury post-therapy.