Abstract

The risk factors of Metallothionein (MT) polymorphisms in heavy metal blood concentrations, particularly mercury, may be due to several confounding factors including differences in ethnicity of the analyzes populations, sample size and the type of the studied environment heavy metals to which population are exposed. The present study aimed to study the effect of MT1A (A>G) and MT1A (C>G) Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNP) on blood mercury level in Ahvaz city (southwest of Iran). 300 non exposure individuals (control group) and 150 exposure individuals (case group) were included. DNA extraction, PCR-RFLP and DNA sequencing were performed and blood mercury level was measured via AAS technique by DMA-80. The blood mercury concentration in case group was higher than control group (p value<0.001).