Distribution of aflatoxin B1 in tissues of mink (Mustela vison).

Seven female mink (Mustela vison) were injected intraperitoneally with a single dose of 100 mug aflatoxin B1 (14 C-label and unabeled). They were sacrificed 1, 2, 4, and 24 h after dosing. Liver, instestines, stomach, lung, kidney, brain, pancrease, spleen, urinary bladder, uterus, and bile were removed and examined for the retained radioactivity. 1 h after dosing, intestines and their contents retained the largest amount of 14C-radioacivity (18.9% of the amount that was administered) which was followed by liver (13.2%) and the bile (10.8%). At this time all other tissues retained less than 1% of the administered radioactivity. Generally, the amount of radioactivity retained in all tissues declined with time. Only 1.2 and 0.6% of the administered radioactivity was found in testines and bile, respectively, 24 h after dosing; however, the liver still contained 6.6% of the initial radioactivity. Examination of subcellular fractions of liver revealed that at all time intervals most of the radioactivity was associated with the micrososmal supernatant fluid.