Cadmium levels in selected organs of rats fed three dietary forms of cadmium*.

The uptake of cadmium from three dietary sources, canned lobster digestive gland, canned porcine/liver, kidney mixture and casein cadmium chloride has been studied in rats fed a level of 20.9 μg Cd/g diet for 90 days. Analysis of the total cadmium levels in kidney, liver, spleen and brain showed uptake from the lobster digestive gland or porcine liver/kidney mixture was only about half of that observed with the casein/cadmium chloride diet. The amount of “free” cadmium present in the lobster hepatopancreas and procine liver/kidney mixture vas 45% and 43% of the total cadmium respectively and it is suggested that these levels of free cadmium are high enough to account for the uptake observed from these two matricies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]