Studies on relationships between essential and toxic elements in selected body fluids, cells and tissues

Processes occurring in the cellular and extracellular environment with the participation of elements both essential due to their vital functions and harmful to organism are complex and depend on many factors. The type of element and its chemical form as well as chemical composition of environment in which they occur play the significant role in the processes. But quantitative relationships between elements are also important, since both the excess and deficiency perturb their homeostasis in the organism. They can interact with each other at the absorption stage, transport in the blood, distribution in tissues and excretion. Quantitative correlations between Ca, Mg, Zn, Cu, Fe, Mn, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cd, and Al in some body fluids (serum, urine), cells (red blood cells) and tissues (human and animal hair, muscle and bone tissue, liver, kidney, stomach) are presented in the paper. It was stated that the following pairs of elements correlate most often: Ca-Mg, Mg-Zn, Cu-Zn, Fe-Cd, and Pb-Cd. It seems that the crucial role in the correlations between elements play their similarity in chemical and physical properties (first of all the size of ions radius and electric charge), the life processes in which the elements participate and the common environmental origin).