Changes in the excretion of endogenous glycine conjugate as a possible artifact in toxicological experiments.

Changes in the urinary excretion of hippuric acid (HIA) and phenaceturic acid (PUA) as well as their metabolic precursors, i.e. benzoic (BA) and phenylacetic acid (PAA), in rats housed in glass metabolic cages for 4 days were monitored using gas-liquid chromatography. The amount of HIA excreted was 128 +/- 63 mumol/kg for female and 79 +/- 43 mumol/kg for male rats in the first 24 h and decreased to 11 +/- 7 mumol/kg (p less than 0.01) for female and 3.2 +/- 2.4 mumol/kg (p less than 0.001) for male rats on the 2nd day. These values remained nearly at the same level until the end of the experiment. The amount of PUA decreased from 48 +/- 12 mumol/kg on the 1st day to 22 +/- 9 mumol/kg (p less than 0.05) on the 2nd day by male rats, whereas by the females the decrease from 30 +/- 9 mumol/kg to 21 +/- 8 mumol/kg was not significant. The decrease in the excretion of glycine conjugates was compensated by a parallel increase in the level of unconjugated BA and PAA.