Disposition of arsenic in saliva, blood and urine of Sprague-Dawley rats following repeated oral exposure to sodium arsenite

Biological monitoring for arsenic(As) was usually based upon a determination of urine and blood arsenic concentration, however, saliva had been suggested as a non-invasive biological matrix for assessing exposure. To further evaluated the potential utility of saliva for arsenic biomonitoring, Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometry(AFS-230) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (ICP-MS) were used to evaluate the disposition of arsenic in whole blood, urine and saliva following repeated oral gavage doses of 0(control), 0.2, 2.0, 20.0 mg sodium arsenite/kg b.w. The results show that there is an obvious dose-response relationship of total arsenic concentration in blood, urine and saliva(P<;0.05). Additionally, there is a significant positive association of salivary arsenic compared with blood arsenic (r=0.934, P<;0.01) and urinary arsenic (r=0.960, P<;0.01). These results demonstrate that the total arsenic in saliva had an obvious dose-response relationship, which can be used as a new biomarker for assessing human exposure to arsenic.