METABOLISM, TOXICITY, AND MANNER OF ACTION OF GOLD COMPOUNDS USED IN THE TREATMENT OF ARTHRITIS

V. A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE RATE OF ABSORPTION, THE RETENTION, AND THE RATE OF EXCRETION OF GOLD ADMINISTERED IN DIFFERENT COMPOUNDS

¹ From the Rackham Arthritis Research Unit, Medical School, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

1. Gold is retained in the liver, spleen, and kidneys in significant quantities for as long as eighty-five days after its intramuscular injection in rats. The rate of removal of gold from these tissues is essentially parallel for each compound except from the kidney where it is influenced by the excretory function of that organ.

2. The absorption of gold compounds after intramuscular injection is incomplete eighty-five days after the last injection. The rate of absorption is most rapid in the case of sodium succinimido aurate and slowest in colloidal gold sulfide with gold sodium thiomalate, gold sodium thiosulfate, gold calcium thiomalate, and gold thioglucose having intermediate rates.

3. The rate of excretion of gold is parallel to the absorption rate for each compound, but is incomplete eighty-five days after the last injection even in the case of sodium succinimido aurate which is the most rapidly excreted substance.

4. Gold is present in blood plasma throughout the eighty-five days after the last injection when our observations ceased.