THE DISTRIBUTION OF INJECTED ORGANIC DISELENIDES IN TISSUES OF TUMOR-BEARIN G ANIMALS

¹ From the Medical Laboratories of the Collis P. Huntington Memorial Hospital of Harvard University

1. After intravenous injection of selenium into mice as diselenide diacetic acid and diselenide n-dibutyric acid, the greatest concentration of selenium was found in the lungs. Using similar compounds in which mercury had been added to the organic selenium compound, the greatest concentration was found in the kidneys.

2. The addition of mercury to these organic selenium compounds appeared to influence the excretion of selenium, for mice injected with such compounds showed much greater deposition of selenium throughout the tissues.

3. It was found that selenium, injected intravenously in the form of diselenide aliphatic compounds or fed in "toxic wheat," did not inhibit the growth of sarcoma 180 in mice. Furthermore, tissue analysis of such animals revealed relatively little selenium in the tumors.