ArticleToxicological sciences : an official journal of the Society of Toxicology2021
Variation in Methylmercury Metabolism and Elimination in Humans: Physiological Pharmacokinetic Modeling Highlights the Role of Gut Biotransformation, Skeletal Muscle, and Hair.
Article in Toxicological sciences : an official journal of the Society of Toxicology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Clinical characteristics, management, and outcomes of diseases caused by mercury overexposure: a systematic review of case reports and case series.Frontiers in public health · 2026Pooled it
- Re-thinking the link between exposure to mercury and blood pressure.Archives of toxicology · 2025Pooled it
- Influence of theInternational journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Article
- Neurodevelopmental effects of methylmercury (MeHg): a review of epidemiological points of departure (PoDs), toxicological reference values (TRVs), and key uncertainties in human health risk assessment.Archives of toxicology · 2026Review
- Underexplored terrain: effects of high priority environmental toxicants on skeletal muscle.Journal of toxicology and environmental health. Part B, Critical reviews · 2026Review
- Mercury Scenario in Fish from the Amazon Basin: Exploring the Interplay of Social Groups and Environmental Diversity.Toxics · 2025Review
- Development of a Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic Model for Inorganic Mercury Salts in Rodents and Humans and Its Application in the Derivation of Health-Based Toxicity Metrics.Environmental science & technology · 2025Article
- An engineered gut bacterium protects against dietary methylmercury exposure in pregnant mice.Cell host & microbe · 2025Article
- Intestinal microbiota protects against methylmercury-induced neurotoxicity.Biometals : an international journal on the role of metal ions in biology, biochemistry, and medicine · 2024Review
- Conversion of methylmercury into inorganic mercury via organomercurial lyase (MerB) activates autophagy and aggresome formation.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Navigating a Two-Way Street: Metal Toxicity and the Human Gut Microbiome.Environmental health perspectives · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The biological half-life (t1/2) of methylmercury (MeHg) shows considerable individual variability (t1/2 < 30 to > 120 days), highlighting the importance of mechanisms controlling MeHg metabolism and elimination. Building on a prior physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model, we elucidate parameters that have the greatest influence on variability of MeHg t1/2 in the human body. Employing a dataset of parameters for mean organ volumes and blood flow rates appropriate for man and woman (25-35 years) and child (4 - 6 years), we demonstrate model fitness by simulating data from our prior controlled study of MeHg elimination in people. Model predictions give MeHg t1/2 of 46.9, 38.9, and 31.5 days and steady-state blood MeHg of 2.6, 2.6, and 2.3 µg/l in man, woman, and child, respectively, subsequent to a weekly dose of 0.7 µg/kg body weight. The major routes of elimination are biotransformation to inorganic Hg in the gut lumen (73% in adults, 61% in child) and loss of MeHg via excretion within growing hair (13% in adults, 24% in child). Local and global sensitivity analyses of model parameters reveal that variation in biotransformation rate in the gut lumen, and rates of transport between gut lumen and gut tissue, have the greatest influence on MeHg t1/2. Volume and partition coefficients for skeletal muscle (SM) and gut tissue also show significant sensitivity affecting model output of MeHg t1/2. Our results emphasize the role of gut microbiota in MeHg biotransformation, transport kinetics at the level of the gut, and SM mass as moderators of MeHg kinetics in the human body.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.