Tissue distribution, binding properties and lesions produced by dehydroretronecine in the nonhuman primate.

Four-month-old rhesus monkeys were injected with 65 mg of [3H] dehydroretronecine per kg body weight and sacrificed at 6,12 and 24 h following injection. By the 24th h 13% of the dose had been eliminated in the urine. Although there were no feces, the extremely high radioactivity of the bile and intestinal contents suggested this route was a major one for the excretion of this compound. The 3H was distributed throughout the body by the 6th h with the greatest percentage being in the skin and muscle. However, per gram of tissue the gastric mucosa and bile showed the highest radioactivity. Likewise, it was in the gastric mucosa that the lesions produced by dehydroretronecine were the most severe. High levels of radioactivity persisted in the gastric mucosal lysates after washings with trichloroacetic acit (TCA) while only a small percentage of the (3)H remained in the washed liver lysate. It was determined that over 20% of the 3H was bound to mucosal protein and less than 1% to the nucleic acids.