Factors That Affect the Distribution of a Toxicant in the Body, Essay Example

There are a variety of factors that affect the distribution of toxicants in the human body with solubility of lipids as well as water being of paramount importance. Lipid soluble compounds usually gather around the central nervous system with its distribution playing a determinant role in concentration of the compound around specific areas and subsequently the type and amount of the cells that are under high concentration (Blaauboer 2003).

The flow blood to the tissue and organs also plays a critical role in distribution of a toxicant in the body. The vessels that carry out this function are associated with anatomical characteristics that affect the passage of some molecules. The functioning of cells in the body is guided by cell membranes whose functions include separation of cell interior and its environment and definition of internal compartments. The cell membrane exhibits selective permeability of molecules depending on their size. Diffusion across these membranes is only possible for relatively small molecules and thus it affects the distribution of   toxicants in the body (Blaauboer 2003). Substance distribution in the body of an organism is a factor of the rates of uptake and elimination and the rate of blood flow to diverse tissues. Most toxicants are not water soluble and consequently, they accumulate to high levels in the body.

The extent of plasma protein binding is also influential to the distribution of toxicants in the human body, such substances might be tightly bound to the red blood cells and the blood plasma (Newman, 2010). The only substances that are easily eliminated from the body through filtration and diffusion are the unbound molecules; this binding is therefore associated with significantly high levels of toxicants in the body

References

Blaauboer B. (2003). Biokinetic and Toxicodynamic modeling and its role in toxicological research and risk assessment. Alternatives to Laboratory Animals 31: 277-281

Newman, M. C. (2010). Fundamentals of Ecotoxicology, 3^rd Ed.,  Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.