High binding of CS2 sulphur in spinal cord axonal fraction

The binding of carbon disulphide sulphur was studied in the spinal cord and its axons of four control and four phenobarbitone pretreated adult rats 3 and 6 h after an intraperitoneal injection of 650 mumol of CS2 in olive oil. The binding of CS2 carbon was measured in the same fractions of two adult control rats 4.5 h after a similar administration of 1.3 mumol of the compound for reference. The specific binding of sulphur was highest in the axons of control animals 3 h after the injection while binding was 17.5% smaller in the axons of phenobarbitone treated animals. The uptake of sulphur was higher in the spinal cord homogenate of the pretreated animals in comparison to control rats. Sulphur was removed from the axonal fraction at a rate of 5.1 natoms/mg of protein/h. Phenobarbitone treatment increased the disappearance of sulphur in the control animals while the rate in the treated rats was 4.9 natoms/mg of protein/h. Phenobarbitone treatment increased the disappearance of sulphur in the spinal homogenate from the removal rate of 0.22 natoms/mg of protein/h in control animals to 0.37 natoms/mg of protein/h in treated rats. The binding of CS2 carbon was negligible 4.5 h after the injection in the axonal fraction. The present data indicate that the release and binding of CS2 sulphur may be responsible for the toxic neural manifestations in chronic CS2 poisoning.