Antagonism of Dizocilpine Maleate and Taurine to Methylmercury-induced Glutamate Metabolism Disturbance in Cerebrum of Rats

Objective To determine the antagonism of dizocilpine maleate(MK-801) and taurine to glutamate metabolism disturbance induced by methylmercury(MeHg) in cerebrum.Methods Forty Wistar rats were randomly divided into five groups.The first group was the control group,the second one was low dose MeHg-exposed group and the third was high dose MeHg-exposed group,these three groups were given physiological saline respectively.The fourth group was subcutaneously injected with 0.3 μmol/kg of MK-801 and the five group was subcutaneously injected with 1 mmol/kg of taurine.Two hours later,the control group was intraperitoneally given physiological saline,the second group was intraperitoneally given 4 μmol/kg of methylmercury chloride,the third,fourth and five groups were given 12 μmol/kg of methylmercury chloride.The administration above was given five times a week for 4 weeks.The contents of mercury and Glu and Gln and the activities of GS and PAG in pallium were determined.Results Compared with the control group,the activities of PAG and the contents of mercury and Glu in MeHg-exposed groups increased significantly,the activities of GS and the contents of Gln decreased significantly.Compared with high dose MeHg group,in MK-801 and taurine treated groups,no significant differences were seen in the contents of mercury,and the contents of Glu,the activities of PAG were decreased significantly,the contents of Gln and the activities of GS were increased significantly.Conclusion Methylmercury can disorder glutamate metabolism in cerebrum of rats,and MK-801 and taurine can effectively counteract the adverse effects of methylmercury.