Excretion, metabolism and tissue distribution of a spin trapping agent, alpha-phenyl-N-tert-butyl-nitrone (PBN) in rats.

The objective of this study is using radiolabelled PBN to determine the tissue distribution, excretion, and metabolism of PBN in rats in order to evaluate the effective time to trap free radical in appropriate tissue(s). Our results demonstrated that PBN is rapidly absorbed when it is injected intraperitoneally in the animal. PBN can be used as an effective spin trapping agent for a variety of tissues since it is evenly distributed among a wide range of tissues measured. Since there is no difference in the tissue concentrations and distribution pattern of PBN at 15, 30 and 60 min after injection of PBN, it is appropriate to choose any of these time intervals to terminate the experiment and extract the spin adduct. The excretion of PBN, however, is slow. The majority of the radioactivity (70%) was excreted by the first 3 days. Only 5.7% of radioactivity was collected from 3 to 14 days. The remaining 25% of the radioactivity may be in the form of expired 14CO2. Trace amounts of radioactivity were recovered in the feces. PBN has probably only one major form of metabolite excreted in the urine. A small amount of the parent compound, however, was also excreted in the urine. The chemical structure of the metabolite(s) is still unknown.