ABSTRACT
Rodents have been widely used to investigate lead metabolism and toxicity. Occupational and environmental lead exposure to people has been and continues to be widespread in numerous countries of the world. Experimental studies can be valuable for understanding lead toxicity in order to better address the substantial public health problem posed by environmental lead contamination. Prevention of lead contamination of blood and organs is essential during their collection, storage, and analysis, and techniques for blood withdrawal and organ harvesting should minimize the potential for contamination. Flame or electrothermal atomic absorption spectrophotometry are the methods of choice for blood and organ lead analysis. The electrothermal atomic absorption procedures require about 100 µl of whole blood, which is diluted prior to analysis with a matrix modifier containing 0.5% Triton X-100, 0.2% nitric acid, and 0.2% dibasic ammonium phosphate. Other biomarkers of lead toxicity that are very useful are blood concentrations of free or zinc protoporphyrin and delta-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase.
