[Immunohistochemical study on the mechanism of excretion of methamphetamine]

Many methods of analysis are available to the forensic toxicologist for determining the amount of methamphetamine within human tissues, but few have the potential of histochemistry for enabling the precise site of excretion of methamphetamine to be defined. We have established a method for the demonstration of methamphetamine by immunohistochemistry, and applied this method for showing morphologically the disposition of methamphetamine. The following cells in the tissues of methamphetamine-intoxicated mice gave a strong positive reaction of the localization, which was thought to be the histological evidence of excretion of this drug: epithelial cells of the distal part of the renal tubule and of the collecting tubule, transitional epithelial cells of the bladder, liver parenchymal cells, epithelial cells of the striated duct of the salivary gland, parietal cells of the gastric gland, part of epithelial cells of the distal portion of the large intestine, secretory cells and part of epithelial cells of the ductal portion of the sweat gland, alveolar cells of the mammary gland, secretory cells of the sebaceous gland and hair medulla and cortex. These results indicated passive diffusion of methamphetamine across membranes of the cells of the distal tubule and collecting tubule of the kidney, of the bladder and of the striated duct of the salivary gland. In the parietal cells of the gastric gland, part of epithelial cells of the distal portion of the large intestine and secretory cells of the sweat gland, methamphetamine was thought to be stored and subsequently released. In the mammary gland, methamphetamine was found to be combined with casein and excreted by exocytosis. Accumulation of methamphetamine in the hair was supposed to be chiefly due to the penetration of this drug derived from tissue fluid and sebum.