1979 Volume 25 Issue 5 Pages 268-270
The quantity of metallothionein (MT) in the urine was considered to be an indicator of health effect of cadmium, and a method for its quantitative determination was examined. 1) Reaction of 109Cd with urine and subsequent treatment with a hemolysate resulted in almost complete removal of 109Cd other than that in the MT fraction. Therefore, MT in the urine was determined by this method. 2) Limit of determination of MT in the urine by this method was found to be over 11 ng as cadmium bound to MT in 1.0 ml of urine. 3) Urinary level of MT was determined by this method in urine from patients of Itai-Itai disease and from normal healthy persons. However, the quantity of MT was so small in both groups and could not be determined.
