preview

Distinction Between Trivalent And Pentavalent Arsenic P

Satisfactory Essays

Trivalent (arsenite) and pentavalent (arsenate) arsenic produce different effects on cells, yet there is little distinction between the two forms of arsenic when discussing signs and symptoms of poisoning. An important fact to note is that during the metabolism of arsenate, 50-70% of it will be reduced to arsenite in the first step of the process. Therefore, the differences in the cell effects are seen from the 30-50% of the pentavalent arsenic unchanged via the bioactivation step of oxidizing glutathione or enzymatically catalyzed by arsenate reductase.1,2 The mentioning of the high amounts of arsenite formed from arsenate is important. This is because, arsenite is much more rapidly taken up by hepatocytes,2 which are the most predominant

Get Access