The distribution and excretion of radioselenium in sheep

Abstract

Abstract Radioactive selenium was injected into five sheep which were killed at intervals from two hours to 28 days afterwards. When plotted against time the ratios of the specific activities of tissues to that of blood gave parallel curves rising rapidly at first and then more slowly. After 28 days these ratios were: liver 2.8, pancreas 2.5, ovary 2.0, abomasum 1.5, cardiac muscle 1.3, skin 0.8, with lower values for other tissues with the exception of kidney and adrenal. The ratios for kidney rose rapidly to 12.9 after 24 hours and then slowly fell to 11.2 after 28 days. The rates of excretion in urine and faeces reached early maxima and then declined until about 20 days, when they increased once more. During the 28 days 12 per cent of the dose was excreted in the urine and 10 per cent in the faeces.