The Silver, Cobalt, Chromium, Iron, Mercury, Rubidium, Antimony, Selenium, and Zinc Contents in Human Bone affected by chondrosarcoma

Objectives: To clarify the role of trace elements in the etiology and the pathogenesis of the chondrosarcoma, a non-destructive neutron activation analysis with high resolution spectrometry of long-lived radionuclides were performed. Methodology: The silver (Ag), cobalt (Co), chromium (Cr), iron (Fe), mercury (Hg), rubidium (Rb), antimony (Sb), selenium (Se), and zinc (Zn) mass fractions and Co/Zn, Cr/Zn, Fe/Zn, Hg/Zn, Sb/Zn, Co/Rb, Cr/Rb, Fe/ Rb, Hg/Rb, Sb/Rb, and Se/Rb mass fraction ratios were estimated in normal bone samples from 27 patients with intact bone (12 females and 15 males, aged from 16 to 49 years), who had died from various non bone related causes, mainly unexpected from trauma, and in tumor samples, obtained from open biopsies or after operation of 16 patients with chondrosarcoma ((3 females and 13 males, 8 to 65 years old). The reliability of difference in the results between intact bone and chondrosarcoma tissues was evaluated by Student’s t-test. Key results: In the chondrosarcoma tissue the mass fractions of Co, Fe, and Se are significantly higher while the mass fraction of Rb is lower than in normal bone tissues. Moreover, significantly higher Co/Zn, Fe/Zn, Co/ Rb, Cr/Rb, Fe/Rb, Sb/Rb, and Se/Rb mass fraction ratios are typical of the chondrosarcoma tissue compared to intact bone. In the chondrosarcoma tissue many correlations between trace elements found in the control group was no longer evident. Major conclusions: In chondrosarcoma transformed bone tissues the trace element homeostasis is significantly disturbed. DOI : 10.14302/issn.2372-6601.jhor -15-666 Corresponding author: PROF., DR. VLADIMIR ZAICHICK, MEDICAL RADIOLOGICAL RESEARCH CENTRE Koroleva St. 4, Obninsk 249036, Kaluga Region, Russia , Fax: +7 495 956 1440, Phone: +7 48439 60289,Email: vezai@obninsk.com Running title: Trace element contents in chondrosarcoma


Introduction
The roles of trace elements in the development and inhibition of cancer have a complex character and have risen many questions because of their essential and toxic effects on human health. The effects of trace elements are related to content and recorded observations range from a deficiency state, to function as biologically essential components, to an unbalance when excess of one element interferes with the function of another, to pharmacologically active doses, and finally to toxic and even life-threatening levels. 1,2 Thus, in normal environmental and health conditions there is a trace element homeostasis in tissues and fluids of human body and an unbalance of trace element contents could be a causative factor for many diseases, including cancer. 2 It is well known that the tissues of human body differ greatly in their contents of trace elements. Our detailed previous studies have shown this using a chemical composition analysis of bone tissue.  Bone tumors form a heterogeneous group of benign or malignant neoplastic diseases since they can derive from all the tissue components of bone (cartilage, osteoid, fibrous tissue, and bone marrow elements).
Each tissue can be subject to inflammation, benign or malignant tumors.
Chondrosarcoma is the second most common primary bone cancer, whose tumor cells produce a pure hyaline cartilage that results in abnormal bone and/or cartilage growth. About one fourth of malignant bone cancers are chondrosarcoma. Although any bone can be affected, the long bones such as legs, arms, fingers, toes are most commonly involved. Chondrosarcoma is typically seen in adulthood between the ages of late 20 to 60 and occurs more commonly in men than women. 30,31 No single morphologic or functional imaging method provides findings for a specific diagnosis of chondrosarcoma, but the results do contribute to tumor staging. Therefore, obtaining a histologic specimen of the lesion in all patients is essential in recognizing this tumor and planning therapy. However, histological examination of bone tumors is one of the most difficult subjects in pathology. 32 It is the reason, why molecular techniques to assist in distinguishing among the various types of bone tumors are being developed, but these techniques have not yielded any clinically significant contribution. 30 To our knowledge, no data are available for the The study was approved by the Ethical Committee of the Medical Radiological Research Center, Obninsk.

Material and Methods
Thirty-three children, adolescents and adults were included in this study. The subjects were divided into  program was also used.     Table 2.  Table 4.    Table 5.

Discussion
The non-destructive INAA-LLR was used in this research study because this method has many definite advantages over other analytical methods, particularly, In the control group the mass fractions of Co, Fe and Zn were measured in all samples, but the mass fraction of Rb -in 11 samples and mass fractions of Ag, Cr, Hg, Sb, and Se -in 10 samples (Fig. 1). In the chondrosarcoma group the mass fraction of all nine trace elements were determined in all samples (Fig. 1). because the level of tumor vascularization is higher than that in normal bone. As we found, there is a direct correlation between Fe and Co mass fractions (Table 5).
Therefore an increased level of Co in the chondrosarcoma may be closely connected with a high Fe content in tumor tissue ( Table 2).
In the chondrosarcoma tissue the mean Se mass fractions is 10.1 times higher (p ≤ 0.00069) than in normal bone (