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The Metabolic Fate of Exogenous Sorbitol in the Rat¹

Norman H. Ertel^*,,, Suat Akgun^*,,, Francis W. Kemp^* and James C. Mittler^*,,

From the^* Departments of Medicine, Veterans Administration Medical Center, East Orange, New Jersey Departments of Medicine, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ 07019

Dietary sorbitol is rapidly converted to fructose and other carbohydrates in the liver, but its metabolic fate has not been studied rigorously. Twenty-four rats were given 20.4 µCi [¹⁴C]sorbitol with 100 mg of sorbitol, and groups of six were killed at 1, 3, 6, and 24 hours after sorbitol administration. Rats were also fed 6.9 µCi [¹⁴C]sorbitol for 7 or 14 days. Serum, liver, and lens were analyzed for ¹⁴C-labeled sorbitol, fructose, and glucose by using high-performance liquid chromatography. Negligible radioactivity (1.1%) was found in the gastrointestinal content at 24 hours indicating virtually complete absorption. Most of the radioactivity was recovered in the glucose fraction in serum, liver and lens. Glucose and fructose concentrations showed some decline by day 14 compared with day 7 in serum and liver. However, in the lens, sorbitol showed a peak value at the end of the 14th day (37.5 ± 9.9 µg/pair). These findings suggest that: 1) after oral administration, sorbitol is completely absorbed, and 2) that there is a finite accumulation of sorbitol and fructose in the lens in 14 days. Although the radioactive label indicated the exogenous origin of these carbohydrates, it is not certain whether the sorbitol is converted to glucose before entering and accumulating in the lens.

KEY WORDS: • lens • exogenous • Sorbitol • metabolism

¹ This work was supported, in part, by a grant from the American Diabetes Association-New Jersey Affiliate, Inc.

Manuscript received 6 August 1982.