Lung uptake to technetium-99m microaggregated human albumin in the rat after treatment with microaggregated human albumin or macroaggregated human albumin.

Marked accumulation in lung and liver of intravenously--injected 99mTc-microaggregated human serum albumin (liver imaging agent) was observed in rats pretreated with the subcutaneous injection of microaggregated or macroaggregated human serum albumin, whereas accumulation of 99mTc-microaggregated human serum albumin was observed only in the liver of rats pretreated with plain human serum albumin or in non-treated control rats. The activity of the intravenously-administered 99mTc-sulfur colloid was concentrated in the liver and spleen only and not in the lung, of rats previously treated with human serum albumin, microaggregated human serum albumin, or macroaggregated human serum albumin. These observations suggest that the specific accumulation of microaggregated human serum albumin in the lung of rats pretreated with aggregated albumin is due to rapid in vivo clumping of injected particles, possibly due to antigen-antibody reaction.