Effects of Lead on Na+-KC ATPase and CaC2 ATPase Activities and Lipid Peroxidation in Blood of Workers

Lead is considered one of the major environmental toxicants that causes hematological, neurological, and gastrointestinal dys-function. In this study, the authors examined the relationship be-tween lead and lipid peroxidation, lead and Na+-K+ ATPase activity, and lead and Ca+2 ATPase activity in blood of work-ers. The working group consisted of 30 male workers occupation-ally exposed to lead at least for 10 years. The control group con-sisted of 20 healthy male individuals not involved with job-related lead exposures. Blood lead content of the control group and the working group were 10.0 § 1.8 „g/dl and 317.3 § 47.6 „g/dl, re-spectively. Malondialdehyde (MDA) value of the working group (0.57 § 0.30 nmol MDA/ml) was significantly greater than MDA value of the control goup (0.17 § 0.02 nmol MDA/ml). In the work-ing group, both Na+-K+ ATPase activity (105.0 § 47.0 nmol Pi ¢mg protein¡1 ¢ h¡1) and Ca+2 ATPase activity (58.0 § 40.0 nmol Pi ¢ mg protein¡1 ¢ h¡1) were lower compared with the correspond-ing values of Na+-K+ ATPase activity (247.0 § 41.0 nmol Pi ¢mg protein¡1 ¢ h¡1) and Ca+2 ATPase activity (230.0 § 41.0 nmol Pi ¢mg protein¡1 ¢ h¡1) of normal controls. The results show that lead exposure causes inhibition of Na+-K+ ATPase and Ca+2 ATPase activities and also results in increased lipid peroxidation