Reduction in the body content of DDE in the Mongolian gerbil
treated with sucrose
polyester and caloric restriction.
Mutter LC, Blanke RV, Jandacek RJ, Guzelian PS
Toxicol Appl Pharmacol 1988 Mar 15 92:3 428-35
Abstract
It has previously been shown that oral administration to rats of
sucrose polyester (SPE4), a nonabsorbable
lipophilic binding agent, greatly stimulates the fecal excretion of
coorally administered DDT5 (R.J. Jandacek,
1982, Drug Metab. Rev., 13, 695-714). To determine whether this
agent would stimulate the excretion of
persistent metabolites of DDT stored in body tissues, we treated a
group of gerbils with [14C]-DDT and
monitored the fecal excretion of radioactivity for several months
until a terminal, log-linear phase of excretion
was observed. At this point, when greater than 75% of the fecal
radioactivity was identified as [14C]DDE, we
fed the animals diets containing up to 10% sucrose polyester and
found that the rate of excretion of
radioactivity in the stool promptly increased two to three times as
compared to the rate in the preceding
control period. Some rats were subjected to a 25-50% restriction
in total food allotment, but this produced
no significant change in fecal excretion of total radioactivity.
However, when food restriction was combined
with administration of sucrose polyester, there was a dramatic,
eightfold average increase in excretion of
fecal radioactivity. This synergistic effect was reversed (within 24
hr) when the animals were transferred to a
normal diet. Measurement of total body radioactivity confirmed that
food restriction plus sucrose polyester
treatment reduced the body content of the pesticide. We conclude
that stimulation of intestinal excretion
may offer a new approach to treatment of patients exposed to
lipophilic environmental contaminants.