Reducing cadmium bioavailability in soil with micronutrient sulfates: Insights from duodenal transporter expression and intestinal microbiota in a mouse model.
Wang Y, Zhang S, Cai J, Shao R, Zheng F
Soil Health
If you grow vegetables in soil that's ever been near industrial sites, old orchards, or heavily fertilized farmland, a simple sulfate amendment could meaningfully cut how much cadmium ends up in your food and your body.
Cadmium is a toxic heavy metal that sneaks into vegetables grown in contaminated soil and accumulates in your kidneys and liver over time. Researchers found that mixing common mineral salts — the kinds that contain manganese, zinc, or iron — into contaminated soil before it's ingested (they tested this in mice eating the soil directly) cut cadmium absorption by roughly a quarter to a third. The protection worked on three levels at once: the minerals competed with cadmium at the gut wall, the gut bacteria shifted toward a healthier balance, and more cadmium got trapped and flushed out in waste.
Key Findings
Cadmium concentrations in kidney and liver dropped by 25.95–35.36% and 20.75–35.30%, respectively, across all micronutrient sulfate treatments compared to controls.
Relative cadmium bioavailability fell by 27–34%, linked in part to a 66–88% downregulation of the intestinal ZIP8 transporter that normally imports cadmium into the body.
Fecal cadmium excretion increased by 39–61% across all treatments, indicating sulfur-bound cadmium complexes were being eliminated rather than absorbed.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Adding manganese, zinc, iron, or sodium sulfates to cadmium-contaminated soil significantly reduced how much cadmium was absorbed by the body — cutting kidney and liver accumulation by up to 35% in a mouse model. The protection came through three linked mechanisms: blocking intestinal cadmium uptake, shifting gut bacteria toward healthier ratios, and boosting excretion of cadmium bound to sulfur.
Abstract Preview
Micronutrient sulfates have the potential to mitigate cadmium (Cd) accumulation in crops; however, their effects on soil Cd bioavailability remain unclear. To address this knowledge gap, mice were ...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
Was this useful?
Want to tell us more? (optional)
Thanks for the note!
Something went wrong — please try again.
Too many submissions. Try again in an hour.
Chloroplast Genome Editing Eliminates Gluten Immunogenicity in Triticum aestivum
It could mean that people with celiac disease — roughly 1 in 100 worldwide — may one day safely eat bread made from real wheat, without sacrificing the taste...
Phytoremediation uses living plants to clean up soil, air, and water contaminated with hazardous substances. This approach is significant for plant science because it demonstrates plants' remarkable ability to absorb and metabolize pollutants, revealing key mechanisms of plant physiology and
arrow_forward Explore topic