Effect of aurothioglucose on liver and kidney concentrations of copper, iron, manganese and zinc.

Sixty male Swiss-Webster mice were given intraperitoneal injections of the gold-containing drug aurothioglucose in saline at 3 dose levels: 50, 200, and 400 mg/kg. Controls received i.p. injections of saline. Ten injections were administered over a 3-week period. After sacrifice, kidney and liver concentrations of gold, copper, zinc, iron, and manganese were determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometry and tissues were examined by light microscopy. Dose related increases in liver and kidney gold were found and kidney copper also increased significantly with increasing renal gold content. Kidney copper was 5.05 +/- 0.80 ppm in control animals, and 7.81 +/- 1.11 ppm, 13.01 +/- 2.49 ppm, and 17.11 +/- 4.02 ppm in mice receiving 50, 200, and 400 mg/kg aurothioglucose respectively. Renal zinc and liver zinc and copper were also significantly (P less than 0.01) increased in mice receiving the highest dose of aurothioglucose. There were no other statistically significant differences in tissue concentrations among the various groups of animals for the other liver and kidney metal concentrations determined. Tubular epithelial cells of aurothioglucose-dosed animals often had cytoplasmic vacuoles which contained granular brown-gold material; this effect was dose-related.