Biliary Plutonium Excretion in the Rat

Abstract

About 50% of the plutonium excreted into the perfused intestine of the rat during the first hour after plutonium injection arrived by way of the bile. After DTPA treatment, the proportion excreted in bile was increased to 75% and the bile plutonium concentration increased 15–20 fold. The prompt appearance of plutonium in the bile after injection suggests that the transfer from blood to bile of at least a portion of the plutonium occurs by a relatively direct process.