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Feasibility Studies in Rats Fed Heavy Metals as Multiple Nutrient Markers

Department of Biochemistry, University of Missouri Medical School, Columbia, Missouri 65201

The nitrates of five metals (cerium, terbium, ytterbium, lutetium, and iridium) were fed to rats to determine the feasibility of their use as nonabsorbed, multiple markers for recovery, passage, and indirect apparent digestibility studies. Fecal recovery of a single oral dose was complete within 72 hours. When the salts were mixed into the diet, 48–96 hours was required to establish a steady-state concentration of markers in feces. The diurnal variation of cerium in feces was found to be considerable when it was fed twice daily as a single dose prior to each feeding. When incorporated into the diet, negligible diurnal variation in fecal concentration was noted with lutetium, and small variation was seen with other metals. In nutrient apparent digestibility studies, good agreement was generally found between direct and indirect multiple marker methods. Experiments with a daily intake marker suggest that cerium was not satisfactory as a multiple marker in which neutron activation analysis was the method of determination.

KEY WORDS: • metals • markers • stabilization • apparent digestibility • recovery time • diurnal variation

¹ Present address: Animal Production Research Institute, Ministry of Agriculture, Dokki, Cairo, Egypt.

² Associate Director, Environmental Trace Substances Research Center, University of Missouri.

³ Biostatistician, Sinclair Research Farm, and Associate Professor of Nutrition, Department of Veterinary Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Missouri.

Manuscript received 14 March 1974.