Is this saying that a low protein diet is better if you have mercury
toxicity?

At 11:51 AM 9/2/00 -0700, you wrote:
>Toxicology 1996 Aug 1;112(1):11-7
>
>Influence of dietary protein levels on the acute toxicity of
>methylmercury
>in mice.
>
>Adachi T, Yasutake A, Eto K, Hirayama K
>
>Department of Basic Medical Scienes, National Institute for Minamata
>Disease, Kumamoto, Japan.
>
>The influence of dietary protein levels on the acute toxicity of
>methylmercury (MeHg) was investigated using C57BL/6N male
>mice fed either a 24.8% protein diet (normal protein diet, NPD) or a
>7.5% protein diet (low protein diet, LPD). When MeHg
>was administered to each group of mice, all mice died at a medium or
>high dose (80 or 120 mumol/kg, respectively) within 16
>or 7 days, respectively, but not at a low dose (40 mumol/kg) in both
>dietary groups. Although no difference was observed in the
>survival rate at a medium dose, NPD-fed mice died earlier despite lower
>brain Hg than LPD-fed mice at a high dose.
>Accordingly, death, in our observations, could not be due to neural
>damage by MeHg. When a high dose of MeHg was
>administered to mice, plasma aspartate aminotransferase and alanine
>aminotransferase activities increased in NPD-fed mice but
>not in LPD-fed mice in spite of similar hepatic Hg levels. Therefore,
>the higher susceptibility of the liver could be reason for the
>shorter survival period in NPD-fed mice. Since plasma creatinine
>increased within 24 h after MeHg administration at a medium
>or high dose, renal dysfunction could be a major factor in death. The
>present results suggest that susceptibility to acute MeHg
>toxicity was higher in NPD-fed mice than in LPD-fed mice, possibly due
>to the difference in hepatic susceptibility.
>
>PMID: 8792844, UI: 96384984
>
>