Industrial solvents and kidney disease

Nachman Brautbar University of Southern California, School of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, USA 

Since inhaled hydrocarbons are readily absorbed into the blood stream and become lipophilic and readily pass across the lipid membranes. In addition to reaching the kidney, the solvents reach the brain (as does the most ancient solvent, alcohol) and enter the blood brain barrier in high concentration. 

Skin absorption is the second most important route for solvent entry into the body and at times is much more significant than inhalation. The reason is that absorption of organic solvent vapors by inhalation at the threshold limit value is insignificant and is less than 2% of the amount absorbed via inhalation under the same exposure conditions. In contrast, solvents may be absorbed through the skin in significant amounts even at below the threshold limit value. Factors that effect the skin absorption of solvents include the composition of 

The distribution of an organic solvent in the human body depends upon its partial pressure in the arterial blood and the solubility of the solvent in the tissue, as well as the blood flow rate through the tissue. Data on tissue distribution of various solvents are limited at best. 

The metabolism of solvents depend on die solvent. Alcohols are metabolized via alcohol dehydrogenase, whereas odier organic solvents are mainly metabolized by the cytochrome P-450-dependent enzymes. These enzymes may be found in the liver, kidneys, lungs, gastrointestinal tract, gonads, adrenal cortex, and other body organ tissues. The metabolism of solvents has been described extensively, - and the reader is referred to those writings. 

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