Funny Bones: Metal Toxicity Within Human Bones

The experiment performed used bone samples across three modern skeletal collections. These samples were collected from one’s skeletal ranging from superior to inferior regions of their body. These collected skeletal bones were then chemically cleaned, mechanically ground, and then digested to run in an ICP-MS. The concentrations returned from the instrument were then reduced using known standard concentrations and organized to allow for statistical measurements. Findings for this experiment include the insignificance of metal concentrations between groups of individuals who have had joint replacements and those who have not for Cobalt, Chromium, Titanium, and Iron. Concentrations for Titanium were below the limit of detection, therefore, the measured concentrations were approximated to zero. On the other hand, significant findings from the experiment include that there are high concentrations for, Iron and Zinc in general, among all groups of donors. These high concentrations could be due to the high levels of these metals in food, but the large concentration is concerning. There are also high concentrations for Gadolinium, but this is present in the individuals who have had joint replacements as they were likely given Gadolinium for medical purposes such as an MRI. The results found were determined to be valid considering the calculations were compared with a study of similar methodology, and across the studies, the measurements were of similar magnitudes.