Gadolinium and Its Effects on Nutritional Status, Microscopy and Microanalytical Outcomes: Quantification by ICP‐MS and Incidence on Reproductive Tract and Liver of Wistar Rats

The behavior and incidence of the gadolinium (Gd) in the organism, has been carried out because of its increasing industrial and medical uses. Gadolinium was intraperitoneally administered to adult male Wistar rats, allowing access to organs via the blood. First, the nutritional status was daily determined using body weight and food intake of animals. Second, testicles, seminal vesicles, epididymides and their caudae, as well as liver, kidneys and brain weights were recorded. Third, treated and control organs were prepared for ultrastructural and microanalytical observations and were used for Gd quantification by ICP-MS technique. Seminal vesicles and the kidneys of treated rats showed significant increase in absolute weight. The ICP-MS showed that Gd was found in very important amounts in liver, testicle and urines collected over 24 h. The ultrastructural and microanalytical techniques showed that Gd was found in the lysosomes of Sertoli, Leydig and hepatic cells in the form of electron-dense grains associated with phosphorus. Ultrastructural alterations were also noticed in those cells. These original results showed that the lysosome was certainly exceeded since Gd was highly detected in many organs like liver and testicles. The presence of Gd in the rat organism seemed to cause toxicity and alteration in testicular cell organelles leading very probably to disruption in the reproductive tract functions. In this case, the organism seemed to activate elimination of Gd via hepatic biliary ducts and kidney excretion confirmed by the presence of Gd in the different analyzed liver territories and in the collected urines.