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The concentrations of arsenic, chromium, cobalt, iron, manganese, rubidium, selenium and zinc were determined by instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) in the homogenate and the subcellular fractions of lungs from rats fed either a selenium-adequate or a selenium-deficient diet. Feeding of the selenium-deficient diet led to a considerable decrease in the selenium levels in all samples investigated but had no significant effect on the concentrations of the other elements. All elements were distributed inhomogeneously among the subcellular fractions. Selenium, iron and zinc had their highest concentrations in the microsomal fraction, chromium and cobalt in the nuclear fraction and arsenic and rubidium in the cytosol. Information about the trace element-containing proteins in the lung cytosol was obtained by size exclusion chromatography and online multi-element analysis of the separated protein fractions by mass spectrometry in conjunction with an inductively coupled plasma (ICP-MS). The results suggested that arsenic, cadmium, cobalt, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, selenium and zinc are present in the rat lung cytosol in several protein-bound forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]