Evaluation of in vivo acute immunotoxicity of a major organic arsenic compound arsenobetaine in seafood.

In this study, we observed the in vivo acute immunotoxicity of a trimethyl arsenic compound, arsenobetaine (AsBe), which is present in large quantities in various marine animals that are daily ingested as seafood in many countries. The synthetic pure AsBe was orally administered to CDF(1) mice at a dose of 1.625 g/kg mouse weight once a day on days -6, -4, -2 and 0 (four times, total 6.5 g/kg mouse weight), and its effect on the immune organs and immune effector cells were assessed until day 8. Orally administered AsBe was temporally distributed to the immune organs, such as the spleen and thymus, but was not very toxic both quantitatively and qualitatively on these immune organs and immune effector cells, splenocytes, thymocytes, Peyer's patch lymphocytes and peritoneal macrophages. This finding suggests that the ingestion of AsBe contained in marine animals is relatively safe to the health of people who often consume marine animals in their daily diet.