[Copper and nervous system. An experimental study (author's transl)].

Sodium azide is known to produce alterations in mammalian copper proteins, thus rendering them unable to bind exogenous metal, which remains in the "labile pool" condition. Continuous administration of sodium azide at LD50 for 30 days causes copper accumulation in several tissues and even in the nervous system, with characteristic changes in neurones and glial cells, very much resembling the alterations observed in Wilson's disease. Dietary copper administration, on the contrary, though raising the level of tissue-bound metal, does not produce cellular damage. These findings allow us to suppose that sodium azide may alterate the coppper chelating proteins in the tissues, especially in the nervous system, thus causing the storage of cell-toxic "labile pool" metal. The pathogenesis of Wilson's disease and the problem of "pathoclisis" in the nervous system are debated.