Intestinal exposure to metals: impact on cell differentiation and intestinal cell funtions.

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Cadmium (Cd), for which Canada ranks in the top five producers, has various industrial uses. In humans, the two main routes of absorption are inhalation (occupational exposure and smokers) and ingestion through contaminated food products (general population). During decades we have studied the intestinal uptake of Cd as a function of metal speciation (i.e. chemical metal species) focusing on inhibition by essential metals. During the past five years we began to study the intestinal epithelium as a target tissue following metal ingestion. This epithelium is subjected to rapid and constant renewal for which cellular proliferation and maturation are temporally- and functionally-linked phenomena for which some cellular protein play crucial role. We have recently shown that Cd may modify the activity of some of these intracellular proteins which regulate the intestinal cell maturation. We have also observed that the intestinal cell may develop some resistance to Cd but the capacity to acquire this resistance vary considerably with the cell maturation status. Finally, we have shown that there are excretory pathways for Cd in intestinal cells that are also expected to vary with the cell maturation status. We thus plan to pursue our investigation on how Cd may impact on the cell maturation processes and the intestinal functions, and determine whether the acquired resistance to Cd is reversible. Moreover, because the intestinal epithelium play a critical role in the metabolism of toxic compounds as well as pharmaceutical drugs, we aim better understanding to which extent Cd may modify, by direct or indirect action, this function. The expected results will increase our knowledge on: (1) mechanisms of metal toxicity at the cellular level and; (2) how 'chronic' exposure to low levels of metals affect intestinal metabolism activities which is of great interest for toxicology and pharmacology.