Lack of Volatilization and Escape of Orally Administered Trichloroethylene from the Gastrointestinal Tract of Rats

It is possible that a substantial portion of orally administered volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) may volatilize within the warm environment of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and escape via the esophagus before being absorbed. The objective of this study was to test this hypothesis with a representative VOC., 1,1,2-trichloroethylene (TCE). Upon hepatic portal vein (PV) injection, complete systemic absorption of TCE was assumed. Thus, exhaled TCE after PV injection should originate only from pulmonary exhalation. In contrast, TCE volatilized in the gut may also contribute to the amounts of TCE exhaled by orally (PO) dosed animals. Male Sprague-Dawley rats (320–380g) were given 8 or 16 mg TCE/kg bw in an aqueous Alkamuls® emulsion (RhonePoulenc, Cranbury, New Jersey). For the PO groups both doses were given by gavage, and for the PV groups the lower dose was injected into the PV as a bolus and the higher dose given as a 20 mm infusion. Serial blood samples were taken from an indwelling carotid arterial cannula and analyzed for their TCE content by headspace gas chromatography (GC), so that the areas-under-blood-concentration-versus-time curves (AUCs) could be determined. Serial exhaled air samples were collected from a sampling port in a miniaturized one-way breathing valve and TCE measured by GC analysis to delineate exhaled breath concentration-versus-time-curves (EAUCs). Exhaled breath levels of TCE paralleled blood levels of TCE throughout the monitoring periods. Evidence against the aforementioned hypothesis was provided by comparison of ratios of blood AUCs and exhaled breath EAUCs: values for ratios of AUCpo/AUCpv and EAUCpo/EAUCpv were the same, as were EAUC/AUC ratios for the PO and PV groups. The EAUCs in the PO groups should have been higher, had there been substantial extrusion of volatilized TCE from the GI tract.