Determination of bone sodium (Na) and Na exchange in pig leg using in vivo neutron activation analysis (IVNAA)

The locations of sodium (Na) storage and its exchange mechanisms in the body are not well known. Understanding tissue Na storage and exchange is important for understanding the impact of Na intake, absorption, and retention on human health, especially on the risk of developing chronic diseases. The purpose of this study was to investigate the application of a deuterium-deuterium (DD) neutron generator-based IVNAA system in Na nutrition studies.

The right legs of two live pigs, one on a low Na diet and one on a high Na diet, both for 14 d, were irradiated inside a customized irradiation cave for 10 min (45 mSv dose to the leg) and then measured with a 100% efficient high purity germanium detector (HPGe). The spectra were analyzed to obtain the net Na counts at different time points. Bone Na concentrations were calculated using the calibration created with Na bone phantoms.

The results show that the difference in bone Na to calcium between the pigs on high versus low Na diets was 466  ±  137 ppm. The estimated bone Na to calcium concentrations were 1166  ±  80 and 1631  ±  111 ppm for low and high Na diet pigs, respectively. Analysis also shows rapid exchange of Na in the leg during the first 2 h measurements, while the exchange was minimal at the second and third 2 h measurements, taken 7 and 21 h post irradiation. The exchange decay time of Na in the leg was 51 min for the first measurement, and there was no significant change of Na activities between 2-21 h.

With these results, we conclude there is a non or low exchangeable compartment (likely to be bone) for Na storage and that DD neutron generator-based IVNAA is a useful method for determining tissue Na distribution in nutrition studies.