Accumulation site of arsenic

Arsenic is a toxic metal-like element that is both naturally occurring in earth's crust
and artificially produced during agricultural and industrial processes. Mostly Arsenic
was used extensively in pesticides and herbicides until the late 1960s which is now
been banned due to environmental and health issues.

Arsenic can enter the water through rock

erosion, mining activity, etc.

When contaminated water is used to irrigate

fields, the element accumulates in soil and
crops, particularly rice.

In communities where residents cook that rice

and drink water from the contaminated well,
arsenic enter into human body.

In this report, we are going to review the accumulation site of arsenic in human.
Arsenic poisoning can be occurred by ingestion, inhalation and dermal absorption.
Arsenic III is well absorbed through the skin and is 60 times more toxic than arsenic
V, which is well absorbed by the gut. The major site of absorption is the small
intestine by an electrogenic process involving a proton (H+) gradient and the
optimal pH for absorption is 5.0.
The two different forms may exert their effects in completely different ways. As(V)
or arsenate. In the periodic table, arsenic is in the position just below phosphorus.
Phosphorus is used to build DNA and as the energy currency of the cell. That means
that phosphate is crucial for life. Since the arsenate looks a lot like the phosphate
molecule used in DNA and RNA synthesis, it can sometimes trick the transport
proteins for phosphate into importing arsenate from outside the cell. Once inside,
arsenate may uncouple oxidative phosphorylation by competing with inorganic
phosphate and blocking ATP synthesis (As+ADP -> unstable arsenate).

As(III) or arsenite works in a different way. Since it is missing the extra oxygen, it
doesnt look much like phosphate to the cell, but because it is uncharged, it can
pass through the lipid membrane to the inside of the cell. Once inside, arsenite may
bind to sulfhydryl groups (R-SH), thus reacts with a variety of proteins and inhibits
their activity (e.g: pyruvate dehydrogenase, glutathione reductase and thioredoxin
reductase). Arsenite inhibits not only the formation of Acetyl-CoA but also the
enzyme succinic dehydrogenase. That may help to account for the wide range of
toxic effects of arsenic.

After acute poisoning of arsenic spectrometry studies show that the highest
concentration of arsenic is in the kidneys and liver. In chronic poisoning, arsenic
accumulates in the liver, kidneys, heart, and lungs and smaller amounts in the
muscles, nervous system, gastrointestinal tract, and spleen. The absorbed arsenic
undergoes hepatic biomethylation to form monomethylarsonic acid(MMA) and
dimethylarsinic acid(DMA) that are less toxic. About 50% of the ingested arsenic
may be eliminated in the urine in three to five days. DMA is the dominant urinary
metabolite (60%70%) compared with MMA. Though most arsenic is cleared,
residual amounts remain in the keratin-rich tissues, nails, hair, and skin. After about
two weeks of ingestion, arsenic is deposited in the hair and nails.