Kidney is a known target organ for arsenic and is critical for
both arsenic biotransformation and elimination. Epidemiologic
investigations and animal experiments have demonstrated that
acute and chronic exposure to arsenic can cause injury to the
kidney and increase the risk of renal cancer (Waalkes et al.,
2004). The epithelial cells of proximal convoluted tubules are
found to be more sensitive to arsenic induced toxicity due to their
high reabsorptive activity and anatomical positions as the first renal
tubular epithelial cells to be exposed to filtered toxicants
(Peraza et al., 2006). Combined ultrastructural/biochemical studies
(Brown et al., 1976) conducted in kidneys of rats exposed to arsenate
have shown in situ swelling of mitochondria associated with
decreased respiratory functions. Moreover, arsenic has been reported
to increase the number of lysosomes