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Molybdenum and Human Body

The human body contains about 0.07 mg of molybdenum per kilogram of weight. It occurs in higher concentrations in the liver and kidneys and in lower concentrations in the vertebrae.Molybdenum is also present within human tooth enamel and may help prevent its decay.

The average daily intake of molybdenum varies between 0.12 and 0.24 mg, depending on the molybdenum content of the food.Pork, lamb, and beef liver each have approximately 1.5 parts per million of molybdenum. Other significant dietary sources include green beans, eggs, sunflower seeds, wheat flour, lentils, cucumbers and cereal grain.Acute toxicity has not been seen in humans, and the toxicity depends strongly on the chemical state. Studies on rats show a median lethal dose (LD50) as low as 180 mg/kg for some Mo compounds.Although human toxicity data is unavailable, animal studies have shown that chronic ingestion of more than 10 mg/day of molybdenum can cause diarrhea, growth retardation, infertility, low birth weight and gout; it can also affect the lungs, kidneys and liver. Sodium tungstate is a competitive inhibitor of molybdenum. Dietary tungsten reduces the concentration of molybdenum in tissues.

Dietary molybdenum deficiency from low soil concentration of molybdenum has been associated with increased rates of esophageal cancer in a geographical band from northern China to Iran. Compared to the United States, which has a greater supply of molybdenum in the soil, people living in these areas have about 16 times greater risk for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Molybdenum deficiency has also been reported as a consequence of non-molybdenum supplemented total parenteral nutrition (complete intravenous feeding) for long periods of time. It results in high blood levels of sulfite and urate, in much the same way as molybdenum cofactor deficiency. However, presumably since pure molybdenum deficiency from this mechanism is seen primarily in adults, the neurological consequences have not been as marked as for the congenital cofactor deficiency.

In humans, four enzymes depend on molybdenum: sulfite oxidase, xanthine oxidoreductase, aldehyde oxidase, and mitochondrial amidoxime reductase. People severely deficient in molybdenum have poorly functioning sulfite oxidase and are prone to toxic reactions to sulfites in foods.

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