Abstract
It has been reported that mercury given to laying birds as alkoxy mercury compounds (1) or inorganic mercury (1, 2) was transported into ovarian follicles. In the previous report, Nishimura and Urakawa (3) have suggested that inorganic mercury given to laying quail probably binds to a serum protein which is biosynthesized in the liver in response to estrogens, and the bound mercury is transported to deposit in the ovarian follicles. In the present paper, the mercury-bound protein in the egg yolk and the serum from laying quail was studied to clarify a transport mechanism of mercury into ovarian follicles, especially a protein-bound carrying system.
