Lead biomonitoring in different organs of lead intoxicated rats employing GF AAS and different sample preparations

An analytical procedure was developed for the determination of lead in different tissues from Wistar Hanover rats, previously intoxicated with lead acetate during a toxicological study. About 25 mg of dried sample (bone, liver, kidney, heart, lung and spleen) were mixed with 8.0 mL of 7.00 mol L−1 nitric acid and digested using microwave radiation in closed vessel. Except for the bone samples, the other tissues could also be analyzed after alkaline solubilization with TMAH. All the digested or solubilized samples were analyzed by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry. Good accuracy and precision were attained when analyzing reference standard materials (for bone, liver and kidney) and also from addition to recovery experiments (for heart, lung and spleen tissues). The method was applied to samples from nine animals and the results suggested that there is a profile for lead bioaccumulation in these animals, which seemed to adapt themselves to continuous lead exposure.