Distribution Kinetics of Dietary Methylmercury in the Arctic Charr (Salvelinus alpinus)

We fed immature 1+ arctic charr with a single dose of methyl[203Hg]mercury (MeHg) and quantified distribution kinetics with a new and simple three-compartment caternary model having well-perfused viscera and blood as the central compartment (VB), whereas gut (G) and the rest of body (R) constituted the peripheral compartments. The model accurately described distribution kinetics of MeHg in the fish, using either data of MeHg content in compartments or blood concentration data. Despite the known fast translocation of MeHg between binding sites at the molecular level, its translocation rate between compartments was surprisingly slow, 27 days being needed to complete 95% of the transfer from gut to blood and 48 days for the subsequent transfer to compartment R. This probably results from a limitation of the stepwise transfer rate of MeHg from red blood cells, which contain most of blood MeHg, to plasma and then to tissues due to low plasmatic concentration of small mobile sulfhydryl ligands. The model presented is a convenient tool that could be used to compare the fate of MeHg and other organometals, such as butyltins and alkylleads, in various aquatic and terrestrial animal species.