Effect of time intervals of selenium administration after injection of mercuric chloride on toxicity and renal concentration of mercury in mice.

The effect of selenite administered at various time intervals after mercury treatment on the toxicity and renal content of mercuric mercury in mice was studied. A marked protective effect of selenite on growth depression and renal lesions caused by mercuric chloride was observed in mice receiving mercury and selenite simultaneously. However, growth depression was not protected by post administration of selenite at more than 20 min after mercury administration, and the renal lesions of mice receiving selenite at 1 hr after mercury administration were indistinguishable from those of mice receiving mercury alone. Selenite markedly depressed the renal accumulation of mercury administered simultaneously but seemed to be incapable of eliminating mercury which had already been deposited there before selenite administration. These observations suggest that the protective effect of selenite on the acute renal toxicity of mercuric mercury was mainly due to reduction of renal mercury accumulation, rather than the elimination of mercury from the kidney.