Hgcl2

MT-I/II null mice with null mutations of the MT-I and MT-II genes, and wild-type mice were kindly provided by Dr. K.H.A. Choo (Murdoch Institute for Research into Birth Defects, Royal Children's Hospital, Parkville, Australia) (Michalska and Choo, 1993) and were of a mixed genetic background of 129 Ola and C57BL/6 strains. F1 hybrid mice were mated with C57BL/6J mice (CLEA Japan, Tokyo, Japan) and their offspring were backcrossed to C57BL/6J for six generations. Both MT-I/ II null mice and wild-type mice were generated by mating with heterozygous (MT+/-) mice. The mice were routinely bred in the vivarium of the National Institute for Environmental Studies, reproducing normally and displaying no overt abnormalities related to physical state or behavior. Both strains of mice were housed in cages in ventilated animal rooms with a controlled temperature of 23 ± 1°C, a relative humidity of 55 ± 10%, and a 12 hr light/dark cycle. They were maintained on standard laboratory chow and tap water ad libitum, and received humane care throughout the experiment according to the guidelines of the National Institute for Environmental Studies.
L-BSO was purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO, USA). Paraffin, hematoxylin, and eosin were procured from Sakura Finetek Japan (Tokyo, Japan). HgCl 2 and other chemicals were purchased from Wako Pure Chemical Industries (Osaka, Japan).