[Physiologically based toxicokinetic model for nickel].

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the metabolic parameters in different tissues and organs, build the physiologically based pharmacokinetic( PBPK) model of rat and occupational population, and predict the toxic dynamic characteristics exposure to nickel.

METHODS: The partition coefficients in different tissues and organs were estimated using vector datas of nickel by the optimization and statistics files of acslx software. The PBTK model of occupational population exposure to nickel was built according to the metabolic parameters by acslx software.

RESULTS: The evaluated partition coefficient of nickel were kidney blood( 0. 668), lung blood( 0. 102), spleen blood( 0. 037), liver blood( 0. 028), heart blood( 0. 022), and brain blood( 0. 006). The constructed successful PBPK model of occupational population exposed to 0. 1 mg/m~3 nickel for 8 hours showed that the nickel concentration is higher in kidney reached at 3. 328 μg/kg, followed by the spleen( 0. 185 μg/kg), liver( 0. 140 μg/kg) and heart( 0. 110 μg/kg). The content of nickel is lower in the brain( 0. 030 μg/kg). The kidneys is the major metabolic organs for nickel.

CONCLUSION: The PBPK model can be used to convert the nickel levels from external exposure to internal exposure for each organ and to evaluate the time-dose relationship exposure to nickel in both rat and occupational population studies.