Minamata disease is a methylmercury poisoning caused by consumption of marine food contaminated by man-made methylmercury environmental pollution, and its most prominent feature is marked pathological changes in the central nervous system. Morphological alterations are less pronounced in the liver and the kidney, although their mercury levels are higher than those of the brain. In marine mammals, methylmercury is known to be easily converted to inorganic mercury and it combines with selenium forming mercury selenide, which may counteract the toxicity of mercury. However, little is known about the formation of mercury and selenium complex in human organs. In the present study, we examined the cerebrum, cerebellum, liver, and kidney of a Minamata disease case to study the mercury and selenium localization using electron probe microanalysis. Our results indicated the mercury and selenium localization in the specified tissue of the brain, liver, and kidney such as glial cells, Kupffer cells, and renal tubules.

水am病是甲基汞中毒，是由人为甲基汞环境污染所污染的海洋食物消费引起的，其最突出的特征是中枢神经系统的明显病理变化。尽管肝脏和肾脏中的汞含量高于大脑中的汞含量，但其形态学变化在肝脏和肾脏中并不明显。在海洋哺乳动物中，已知甲基汞容易转化为无机汞，并且与硒形成的硒化汞结合，可以抵消汞的毒性。但是，关于人体器官中汞和硒复合物的形成知之甚少。在本研究中，我们检查了水am病病例的大脑，小脑，肝脏和肾脏，以使用电子探针显微分析研究汞和硒的定位。