Studies on the lysosomal binding of 141Ce, 239Np, 239Pu and 241Am in rat and syrian hamster liver using carrier-free electrophoresis

Abstract

The binding of 141Ce, 239Np, 139Pu and 241Am in the liver of rats and Syrian hamsters, following injection in essentially monomeric form, was analyzed by carrier-free electrophoresis at 4–9 days and several months after radionuclide injection. In contrast to density gradient methods lysosomes can be clearly separated from other cell organelles by carrier-free electrophoresis. These, and previous results from this and other laboratories confirm that lysosomes are the main initial binding site for these four radionuclides in the livers of rats and Syrian or Chinese hamsters. Light microscopic autoradiography showed that at all the time intervals studied 241Am was more or less uniformly distributed in the liver of all three species. Thus, the changes in the electrophoretic pattern of the nuclides, observed at later time periods in hamsters, cannot be explained by gross redistribution phenomena such as accumulation in macrophages.