ABSTRACT
The on-line monitoring of a specific pollutant can be performed for only a short time interval, thus the alternative methods for long-term monitoring of pollution are developing. Various species of plants and animals, which are sensitive to higher levels of pollutants or which can synthesize easily detectable biomolecules as a response to environmental pollution, have been used to assess the effects of longterm environmental stress [1-8]. Among wide spectrum of biomolecules induced by various stress factors low molecular mass thiols are suitable for assessment of the environmental pollution because of their main physiological functions in scavenging of reactive oxygen species and detoxification of toxic organic and inorganic molecules via binding with free –SH groups [9]. Metallothioneins (MT) as a group of intracellular, low molecular mass, free of aromatic amino acids and rich in cysteine proteins with molecular weight from 6 to 10 kDa can be considered members of forementioned thiols biomark-
ers [10-14]. These proteins are abundant through whole animal kingdom, and they were also found in higher plants, eukaryotic microorganisms and some prokaryotes. MT can be found mostly in liver, kidney, pancreas and intestines at animal species. Moreover, MT is accumulated in lysosomes and was found also in nuclei [15].
