Microelement imbalance in the rat uterus after short-term heavy metals exposure

Abstract

Heavy metals (HMs) are distinguishable among various exogenous elements with a comprehensive impact and high adverse environmental consequences. The danger of their spread is accompanied by risks of entry into living organisms, leading to organ accumulation, homeostasis disruption, and the development of various inflammatory and oncological clinical manifestations. Interestingly, the uterus shows an unpredictable reaction to the influence of these chemical elements, with almost all previous studies providing differing results. Therefore, this study investigated the features of chemical element content in the rat uterus after 30 days of HMs exposure and assessed the benefits of vitamin E against HMs impacts. Spectral analysis of uterine tissue of rats (daily HMs exposure) and animals (HMs exposure with vitamin E treatment) showed a significantly higher accumulation of Zn, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb, and Cr after 30 days of the experiment. Although the uterus samples of rats treated with vitamin E showed a significant accumulation of HMs, it should be noted, that the tendency for their accumulation was less pronounced than in untreated rats. This study showed the accumulation features of some chemical elements in the rat uterus after 30 days of HMs exposure. Therefore, widespread environmental HMs exposure can leads to high absorption levels in uterine tissues. However, increases in HMs levels were significantly attenuated by vitamin E supplementation. Unfortunately, while a positive trend was found for each chemical element, the complete protection and purification effect of vitamin E use against HMs exposure was not observed.