Biochemical studies of toxic agents; experiments with radioactive 2:3-dimercaptopropanol (British anti-lewisite).

During the period 1941-5, studies were conducted in this laboratory on the antidotal action of 2:3dimercaptopropanol (BAL, British Anti-Lewisite) and other thiols in arsenic poisoning; for review see Young (1946). The investigations were undertaken after receiving early reports of the work of Peters and his co-workers on the value of 2:3-dimercaptopropanol as an antidote to arsenic. In 1945 Peters, Stocken & Thompson reviewed investigations on BAL which had been carried out at Oxford and elsewhere during the War, and, since the appearance of their article, numerous papers describing researches on BAL have been published. The fact that no satisfactory method for determining BAL in biological material was available led us to synthesize BAL with radioactive sulphur (35S) incorporated in the molecule (Simpson & Young, 1945a) and to use it in studies of the fate of BAL in the animal body (Simpson & Young, 1945b,c). A series of experiments was carried out on rats in which the absorption of BAL by the skin was allowed to proceed for a period of 6 hr. after application and the unabsorbed BAL was then removed. The absorption, distribution and excretion of 35S were determined at 6, 12 and 24 hr. after the initial application (Simpson & Young, 1945b). A second series of experiments was conducted in which the distribution and excretion of 35S were determined at 6, 12 and 24 hr. after the intramuscular injection into the rat of a solution of radioactive BAL in propylene glycol (Simpson & Young, 1945c). An account of similar work with radioactive BAL, with results in general agreement with those described herein, has been published by Peters, Spray, Stocken, Collie, Grace & Wheatley (1947). These authors indicate that their work with radioactive BAL was in progress when reports describing some of the present investigations appeared.