Sodium glucuronate and glucuronolactone in bilirubin conjugation and formation of borneol glucuronide

¹ Genetic Clinic of Children's Memorial Hospital, and Departments of Pathology, Pediatrics and Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois

Sodium glucuronate, glucuronolactone or glucose labeled uniformly with radiocarbon was administered intravenously to dogs together with an intravenous infusion of bilirubin. When sodium glucuronate was injected, the bile recovered in the succeeding 3 hours contained 4.16 x 10^–6 and 8.33 x 10^–7 of the labeled material injected per milligram bilirubin. Recoveries after injection of labeled glucuronolactone were 4.98 x 10^–5 and 7.94 x 10^–5 of the administered label per milligram bilirubin excreted, and when labeled glucose was given, the fractions recovered were 3.39 x 10^–4 and 4.91 x 10^–4/mg bilirubin. Radioautograms of paper chromatograms of bile showed radioactivity at the spots corresponding to bilirubin glucuronide when glucose was the labeled substrate. An average of 0.89% glucuronolactone-1-C¹⁴ given together with borneol to rats appeared in the borneol glucuronide isolated from urine. When glucuronolactone-6-C¹⁴ was used as substrate, the incorporation into borneol glucuronide was not significant. These data are interpreted to indicate the incorporation of a very small but definite fraction of administered glucuronolactone into glucuronide conjugates via an indirect pathway; significant direct incorporation does not occur in the intact animal. However, glucose is a more effective precursor of bilirubin glucuronide than glucuronolactone.

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