Investigations of the potential bioavailability of 210Po in some foodstuffs

Extraction of 210Po from lamb's liver, pig's kidneys, mussel flesh and brown crabmeat with a series of solvent systems has been used to gain some insight into the uncertainty about the gastrointestinal absorption factor for Po incorporated into foodstuffs. By extracting the tissues with diethyldithiocarbamate dissolved in chloroform, and also in methanol, it has been shown that 210Po is more effectively extracted from lamb's liver and crabmeat than it is from each of the other tissues. A similar pattern of extractability is also evident for aqueous solutions of citric acid on crabmeat and mussel flesh. Of particular note is the low extractability by dimethylsulphoxide (3%) of 210Po in mussel flesh as opposed to 24% extractability of 210Po from crabmeat. 210Po-binding macromolecules of about 10 kDa have been released from crabmeat and mussel flesh by digestion with pepsin.