Excretion and Tissue Distribution of Radioactive Lysinoalanine, Nε-DL-(2-Amino-2-Carboxyethyl)-U-14C-L-Lysine (LAL) in Sprague-Dawley Rats

Abstract

Rats were fed either a control soybean protein diet or a diet containing 3,000 ppm soybean protein-bound lysinoalanine (LAL) for 4 or 6 weeks, at which time all rats were dosed by stomach tube with 14C-LAL labeled in the lysine moiety. Urinary and fecal excretion and tissue distribution were followed in one experiment at 6, 12, 18, 24, 48 and 72 hours. Excretion in urine, feces and expired air was followed in the other metabolic experiment at 2-hour intervals for 48 hours, and at 24-hour intervals for the next 7 days. Tissue samples were counted and LAL determination was made by amino acid analysis in both experiments. The group of rats fed LAL excreted slightly more LAL than the group fed the control diet. Very little LAL remained in the rat tissues after either experiment, and the largest remaining quantity of radioactivity was found as lysine. Quantitation of 14C-lysine in the original material and in the material from rat organs showed that the rat has some capacity for converting LAL to lysine. Less than 0.5% of the original 14C remained in any organ examined 9 days after dosing in the either control or LAL-fed rats. Autoradiographs of the kidneys 24 hours after dosing showed that the radioactive material had accumulated in the proximal convoluted tubules of the corticomedullary junction.