Reabsorption of Filtered Cadmium-Metallothionein in the Rabbit Kidney

Abstract

SummaryMetallothioneins isolated from the liver of rabbits injected with 115mCd were infused into normal and Cd-treated rabbits, and renal filtration, excretion, and reabsorption of the isotope were determined. Reabsorption involved at least two processes, only one of which became saturated at low plasma concentrations of Cd-MT. This process was greatly depressed in poisoned animals. Nevertheless, the reabsorptive capacity even of poisoned kidneys remained so high that renal excretion of Cd in the poisoned rabbit cannot primarily involve filtration of Cd-MT and its tubular rejection, as had been suggested by other workers.