Effects of liver’s state of health on its iron and plutonium content

Abstract

Purpose

Plutonium and iron share a common metabolism in terms of their transportation and accumulation in the human body. This study examined their concentrations in livers with different states of health, and the effects of fatty degeneration and cirrhosis on their accumulation in the liver.

Materials and methods

We determined the concentrations of plutonium and iron in autopsy liver samples from 1976–1979. Using statistical analysis, we investigated the relationships between the different variables.

Results and conclusions

The burdens of ^239,240Pu and Fe correlated positively (R_s = 0.411) in the healthy livers, but not in the livers that had pathological findings. In contrast to the Fe content, the ^239,240Pu content in the fatty degenerated or cirrhotic livers was significantly lower than that in normal livers. This difference may suggest that plutonium and iron do not accumulate or are not excreted in the same way in fatty degenerated and cirrhotic livers. The reaction mechanisms for the binding and excretion of plutonium, particularly in a fatty degenerated liver, are not yet fully known.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Iron
• plutonium
• liver
• fatty degeneration
• cirrhosis

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the late professors emeriti, T. Jaakkola† and J.K. Miettinen†, Department of Radiochemistry, University of Helsinki; and Professor Kauno Laiho, MD, Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Helsinki. We thank Säde Uotila (née Laurén) for her technical assistance with the iron analyses and Arja Partanen-Talsta, MD, for providing the five Sami samples from the obductions in the Central Hospital of Rovaniemi. Finally, we want to thank Alice Lehtinen for revising the language of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Susanna Salminen-Paatero

Susanna Salminen-Paatero, PhD in radiochemistry, is a university researcher at the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.

Helena Mussalo-Rauhamaa

Helena Mussalo-Rauhamaa, PhD in radiochemistry, MD, is an emerita researcher and adjunct professor (docent) at the Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.