Cadmium in liver, kidney, and hair of humans, fetal through old age

Abstract

Cadmium concentrations were measured in the liver, kidney, and hair of 107 individuals from the Cincinnati area. The tissue samples were obtained from hospital and coroner autopsy cases and represent a cross-section of individuals from fetal to old age. The sections used were standardized and analyzed for cadmium by atomic absorption. Information obtained at the time of autopsy included the cause of death, the conditions of the tissues, the body height and weight, the amount of anthracosis in the lungs, as well as age, sex, and race. The liver concentrations increased steadily until the late decades. The kidney concentrations increased to the fourth decade, peaked, and decreased steadily from the sixth decade thereafter. The leveling effect in the liver may have been due to the increased presence of fatty livers, and the kidney decreases to nephrosclerosis. The kidney and liver were statistically well correlated. Hair, which achieved a surprisingly high Cd concentration in early infancy, tended to decrease throughout the rest of the age span and correlated poorly with the liver and kidney. There seemed to be no relationship between the amount of pulmonary anthracosis and the cadmium found in any of the tissues. The results obtained here for liver and kidney were in line with other reports in the literature; however, the hair results were somewhat different.