Oral cadmium chloride intoxication in mice: diethyldithiocarbamate enhances rather than alleviates acute toxicity.

Diethyldithiocarbamate (DDC) is known to alleviate acute toxicity due to injection of cadmium salts. However, when cadmium chloride was administered by the oral route, DDC enhanced rather than alleviated the acute toxicity; both oral and intraperitoneal (i.p.) administration of DDC had this effect. Thus, orally administered DDC enhanced cadmium-induced duodenal and ileal tissue damage and inhibition of peristalsis, as indicated by an increased intestinal transit time. At low cadmium doses, the whole-body retention of cadmium was increased by oral DDC administration. Intraperitoneally administered DDC increased cadmium-induced acute mortality and testicular necrosis, and it enhanced cadmium-induced reduction of intestinal motility and increased the whole-body retention of cadmium, indicating increased intestinal cadmium absorption. Also, DDC changed the organ distribution of absorbed cadmium: after i.p. administration of DDC, the relative hepatic deposition was reduced, whereas the relative deposition in other organs, in particular the brain, was increased. This study indicates that medical use of DDC should be avoided in individuals with current exposure to cadmium.