Search

Iron-59 has been used in mice as a tracer for bone marrow to extrapolate from the plutonium measured in a standard sample of tibial marrow to the plutonium in total marrow 5–6 days after intravenous injection of different physical-chemical forms of plutonium. A factor of 44 was obtained for conversion of the radioactivity measured in the tibial sample to total body marrow. Using this factor, and calculating the total skeletal plutonium burden as the amount measured in two femurs times 13, one can calculate the proportion of skeletal plutonium located in the marrow. For monomeric, mid-range polymeric and highly polymeric plutonium, values of 2, 7, 5 and 62 %, respectively, were obtained. Similarly, for monomeric americium and a highly polymeric americium, 1 and 20 % of the total skeletal burden was calculated to be in the marrow. In two experiments, in which monomeric plutonium had been found to be about twice as carcinogenic in bone as the mid-range polymeric plutonium, the amount ofplutonium in all the bones and spinal segments was measured at 15 days. Using these data and the 59Fe measurements, we have calculated and tabulated the marrow content of these two forms of plutonium throughout the skeleton. The total marrow burdens, calculated from the tibial samples, were 0.796 % of the injected monomeric vs 3.66 % of the mid-range polymeric plutonium. These amounts were 2.35 vs 14.3 % of the amount of plutonium measured in the total skeleton, respectively.

A highly polymeric preparation of plutonium-239 was injected intravenously into five groups of beagle dogs. An untreated control group was killed at 6 days after injection. The four treated groups, killed at 90 days, received one of the following by intravenous injection: (a) 15 mg/kg of glucan on days 6, 34, and 62; (b) 100 mg/kg of the calcium chelate of DTPA, twice weekly for 12 wk, beginning on day 6; (c) both of these treatments; or (d) saline. Between days 6 and 90, the amount of plutonium in the liver decreased from 92.2 to 85.6% of the injected dose (ID) after saline, to 81.6% after glucan, to 77.8% after DTPA, and to 71.0% after both glucan and DTPA. The decrease to 71.0%, an approximately additive effect, was statistically significant. In dogs treated with either saline or glucan, the plutonium levels of the bones and the soft tissues other than the liver were higher than those in animals treated with DTPA. The 90-day excretion of plutonium in feces was low in all groups (3.3% ID, or less), whil...

Glucan from yeast is additive with DTPA (diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid) in removal of polymeric plutonium-239 from the mouse liver. At 47 days after administration of plutonium, the net removal was 8.5% of the injected dose by glucan alone, 11.5% by twice-weekly DTPA treatments, and 19.5% by combined therapy. A 60 mg/kg dose of glucan, given intravenously, was equally effective when given (a) in a single injection, (b) divided into three daily injections, (c) given 5 days or 3 hr before plutonium, or (d) 5 days after plutonium. A 15 mg/kg dose of glucan was almost as effective as higher doses (30-120 mg/kg). Hepatic plutonium removed by glucan was excreted in the urine in the presence of DTPA, or was apparently translocated to the skeleton without DTPA. As shown earlier for monomeric plutonium in the mouse, liver deposits of polymeric plutonium are excreted primarily through the feces, both with and without DTPA, and skeletal deposits removed by DTPA are excreted through the urine. Twice-weekly injec...

Monomeric or polymeric plutonium was injected intravenously into beagles and CF # 1 mice for the purpose of comparing total body distribution of the two forms of this actinide in these species. Blo...