Effect of an acute injection of nickel upon essential metal homeostasis in the rat. Influence of sex and pregnancy.

The content of calcium, copper, iron, magnesium and zinc in the plasma, liver and kidney of control female and male, as well as pregnant rats on days 12 and 19 after a i.p. injection of 4 mg/kg of nickel was studied. The content of 19-day conceptuses was also measured. The injection of nickel provoked significant alterations in the essential metal homeostasis, more marked in the case of pregnant rats, with additional differences between male and female animals. In general, nickel provoked increases in metal concentrations in tissues, with diverse changes in plasma. In a number of tissues and metals, the effects lasted up to 48 hours after the single injections, long after the nickel being washed off the animal. The results suggest some sort of long-lasting nickel effect upon metal homeostasis, which is postulated not to be directly related to acute effects and which is enhanced by pregnancy.