Bivalent tin metabolism and toxicity after intravenous injection in rats.

With progressing advances in radioisotope diagnostic methods in nuclear medicine new radiopharmaceutic agents have been introduced containing inorganic soluble compounds of bivalent tin (Sn+2). An important problem is to study the metabolism and toxicological effects of Sn+2. In the presently reported work the distribution of Sn+2 was determined in the organism of rats at different time intervals after intravenous administration of 113SnCl2 (from 10 minutes to 4 months) and the rate of its elimination from the whole body was studied. Sn+2 toxicity was determined calculating the LD50/30 dose of Sn+2 and by means of the OCT test (ornithine-carbamyltransferase level in the serum). The investigation demonstrated selective accumulation of Sn+2 in the liver and spleen where it remained for a long time, phasic elimination of tin from the whole body, and its moderate toxicity after intravenous administration.