Urinary excretion of acrylonitrile and its metabolites in rats.

Quantitative analysis of the dose-dependent urinary excretion of acrylonitrile and its metabolites was carried out in male Wistar rats following inhalation exposure of the animals to 1, 5, 10, 50 and 100 ppm acrylonitrile for 8 h. Quantitative analysis of acrylonitrile in urine was performed by gas chromatography. The urinary metabolites cyanoethyl mercapturic acid, S-carboxymethyl cysteine and hydroxyethyl mercapturic acid were measured by a modified amino acid analysis, and thiodiglycolic acid by GC-MS. The excretion pattern of the compound and its metabolites was dependent on the exposure level; it is concluded that urinary determination of the unmetabolized acrylonitrile and two of its metabolites, cyanoethyl mercapturic acid and thioglycolic acid, may be useful for biological monitoring of industrial exposure.