Contact: Marcia Faye
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Dirty Air at the Extracellular Level
A Midwestern University researcher looks at how the environmental pollutant cadmium causes major organ damage, beginning at the molecular level.
Scientists have known for many years that the heavy metal cadmium, an industrial and environmental pollutant, does severe bodily damage to the lungs, livers, kidneys, and bones of men, women, and children. However, despite extensive research efforts, the specific mechanisms by which cadmium produces these harmful effects have remained a mystery. One scientist who has tackled this problem is Dr. Walter Prozialeck, a pharmacologist at Midwestern University in Downers Grove, Illinois. His 10-year research quest has been to dissect the major damage into much smaller pieces: the molecules that comprise the surfaces of the cells that cadmium slowly destroys. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is also interested in what Dr. Prozialeck's investigations may yield and recently awarded him a third grant, this time for over $750,000. All together, NIH has awarded the researcher over $1 million since his cadmium investigations began.
Cadmium is a ubiquitous and insidious pollutant. A by-product of zinc production by humans and a component of volcanic eruption by nature, the element is chiefly used in the industrial plating process and can be found in products as diverse as solder, artists' pigments, and rechargeable batteries. It is even used to absorb neutrons in the control rods and shielding of nuclear reactors.
Through studies on cells in culture, Dr. Prozialeck has found that cadmium disrupts the molecular structures that maintain the tight contacts between cells that line various body surfaces such as those found in the lung, blood vessels, and hollow organs. A possible mechanism of attack appears to involve the affinity of cadmium for a cell adhesion molecule called E-cadherin, a glycoprotein that figures largely in how cells attach to one another. This junctional attack may explain how cadmium damages various organs, and how it acts as a carcinogen and teratogen. These latest findings are presented in a feature article just accepted for publication in the journal Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology.
Attention on environmental issues regarding cadmium exposure has been on the increase since the 1960s, when cadmium was shown to cause more general environmental hazards by its contamination of soil and irrigation water. When cadmium enters the body, it becomes a long-term resident. Once ingested or inhaled, it takes some 20 years for the metal to lose 50 percent of its initial toxic effectiveness.
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