Bioavailability of fluoride administered as sodium fluoride or sodium monofluorophosphate to human volunteers.

This paper reports a reassessment of the bioavailability of fluoride from monofluorophosphate (MFP, CAS 10163-15-2). It was prompted by recent work from this laboratory reporting that, following an oral dose of MFP, a fraction of the drug appears in plasma bound to globulins forming a previously undetected compartment of non-diffusible fluoride. The presence of protein-bound MFP in plasma after the intake of this drug hinders its straightforward comparison with NaF (CAS 7681-49-4). After an oral of NaF, all plasma fluoride is diffusible. After intake of MFP, on the other hand, plasma contains diffusible fluoride and protein-bound fluoride during the 6-8 h following intake. The area under the curve of total plasma fluoride for MFP (1540 +/- 117 mumol.min/l) doubles that of NaF (811 +/- 52 mumol.min/l p < 0.001). On this basis, in agreement with findings previously reported for the rat, it is concluded that the bioavailability of fluoride for MFP doubles that of NaF.