量研学術機関リポジトリ「QST-Repository」は、国立研究開発法人 量子科学技術研究開発機構に所属する職員等が生み出した学術成果（学会誌発表論文、学会発表、研究開発報告書、特許等）を集積しインターネット上で広く公開するサービスです。 Welcome to QST-Repository where we accumulates and discloses the academic research results(Journal Publications, Conference presentation, Research and Development Report, Patent, etc.) of the members of National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology.
Thank you very much for using our website. On the 11th of March 2019, this site was moved from our own network server to the JAIRO Cloud network server. If you previously bookmarked this site, that bookmark will no longer work. We would be grateful if you could bookmark the website again. Thank you very much for your understanding and cooperation.
Renal toxicity is the principal health concern following uranium exposure. Children are particularly vulnerable to uranium exposure; with contact with depleted uranium in war zones or groundwater contamination the most likely exposure scenarios. To investigate renal sensitivity to uranium exposure during development, we examined uranium distribution and uranium-induced apoptosis in the kidneys of neonate (7-day-old), prepubertal (25-day-old), and adult (70-day-old) male Wistar rats. Mean renal uranium concentrations increased with both age-at-exposure and exposure level following subcutaneous administration of uranium acetate (UA) (0.1–2 mg/kg body weight). Although less of the injected uranium was deposited in the kidneys of the two younger rat groups, the proportion of the peak uranium content remaining in the kidneys after two weeks declined with age-at-exposure, suggesting reduced clearance in younger animals. In situ high-energy synchrotron radiation X-ray fluorescence analysis revealed site-specific accumulation of uranium in the S3 segment of the proximal tubules, distributed in the inner cortex and outer stripe of the outer medulla. Apoptosis and cell loss in the proximal tubules increased with age-at-exposure to 0.5 mg/kg UA. Surprisingly, prepubertal rats were uniquely sensitive to uranium-induced lethality from the higher exposure levels. Observations of increased apoptosis in generating/re-generating tubules particularly in prepubertal rats could help to explain their high mortality rate. Together, our findings suggest that age-at-exposure and exposure level are important parameters for uranium toxicity; uranium tends to persist in developing kidneys after low-level exposures, although renal toxicity is more pronounced in adults.
Uranium dynamics and developmental sensitivity in rat kidney
