1. Following multiple oral administration of 14C-flocoumafen to rats at 0.02 and 0.1 mg/kg per week, appreciable cellular accumulation was seen in the liver. 2. Residues in the liver increased with dose throughout the duration of the experiment (14 weeks) at the low dose, but reached a plateau after 4 weeks at the high dose. The major component was unchanged flocoumafen together with a minor polar metabolite seen also in faeces. 3. The data suggest the presence in rat liver of a saturable high-affinity binding site for flocoumafen and a second binding site of lower affinity. 4. Lethal anticoagulant action occurs only when the binding sites have become saturated. 5. A range of haematological and clinical chemistry measurements failed to predict the onset of anticoagulant toxicity seen in the high dose treatment group. 6. Flocoumafen was not extensively metabolised; at the low dose, approximately 30% of the cumulative administered dose was eliminated in the faeces within 3 days of each dosing, mainly as unchanged rodenticide. At the high dose, this value ranged from 18% after the first dose to 59% after the tenth dose. 7. Two more polar metabolites and a lipophilic compound were minor products in faeces. Amounts of the polar products increased with cumulative dosage received. The urinary route of elimination was a very minor one (less than 1.6%) at both doses.
1. 14C-Flocoumafen, administered to Japanese quail as a single oral or i.p. dose, was rapidly and extensively eliminated in excreta; most was eliminated within 24 h. Extensive metabolism of the rodenticide was seen, with at least 8 metabolites detected; unchanged flocoumafen comprised 9% dose. The elimination kinetics and metabolic profiles were qualitatively similar after oral and i.p. dosing. 2. The major metabolites (60% dose) were labile to beta-glucuronidase, liberating aglycones with identical chromatographic mobilities to those of the unchanged flocoumafen isomers. 3. Radioactivity was retained mostly in the liver; largely as unchanged flocoumafen associated with the mitochondrial and microsomal fractions. Elimination of radioactivity from most tissues was biphasic with an initially rapid depletion (5 days) followed by a slow terminal elimination phase. The elimination half life from liver was greater than 100 days. 4. Livers of quail receiving extended dietary exposure to flocoumafen at 5, 15 and 50 ppm had concentrations of flocoumafen (1.0 nmol/g) that were independent of dose, indicating a capacity-limited binding site. These hepatic concentrations were similar to those after a single oral dose and were also similar to those in rats. The data indicate the presence in quail liver of a saturable high affinity flocoumafin binding site with similar characteristics and capacity to that in the rat. 5. The selective toxicity of flocoumafen to rats (highly toxic) and quail (moderately toxic) appears to arise from differences in metabolism rather than from anticoagulant binding in the liver. When hepatic binding sites of rats are saturated anticoagulant action becomes lethal, whereas quail are able to survive and extensively metabolize the compound.
A single oral dose of 0.14 mg kg−1 of [14C] flocoumafen to rat, which gave a transient, non‐lethal, effect, was rapidly absorbed, radioactivity appearing in the blood maximally at 4 h and falling to half maximum value by 8 h. The maximum effect on prothrombin time was at 24 h and the value returned to normal by 48 h. Elimination of radioactivity was very slow, with less than 0.5% of the dose in the urine up to 7 days after dosing, and 23‐26% in the faeces (more than half of which appeared in the first 24 h). Most of the administered radioactivity (74‐76%) was retained 7 days after dosing. Approximately half of the dose was in the liver; it was eliminated with a halflife of 220 days. At 48 h after dosing, most of the hepatic radioactivity comprised unchanged flocoumafen. Treatments of flocoumafen‐dosed rats with warfarin or with cytochrome P450‐inducing doses of phenobarbitone were without effect on the hepatic residue of flocoumafen.
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