title: Quantification of tissue self-absorption of weak beta-radiation in lyophilized whole-body sections of rats.
abstract: Whole-body autoradiography has been widely used in the investigation of the distribution of radiolabeled compounds in animals. The newly introduced radioluminography offers a reliable way of quantifying the radioactivity distribution within whole-body sections. Since the radioactivity is distributed over the entire depth of the section, self-absorption of beta-radiation in tissues is supposed to relevantly affect the detection of radioactivity at the section surface. The self-absorption of radiation energy ((14)C) was investigated in 28 organs/tissues of routinely produced lyophilized rat sections. Nonradioactive whole-body sections with different thickness between 20 and 120 microm were placed between a homogeneous (14)C source and the imaging plates to detect the transmitted radioactivity. The self-absorption was expressed in terms of percentage of transmission of the radioactivity through the sections. Transmission decreased with increasing section thickness, e.g., from 44% (20 microm) to 28% (120 microm) for blood. Comparison of three complete sets of data disclosed intertissue variations of up to about 30% (i.e., +/-15%) disregarding bone. A defined bandwidth of +/-15% around the blood transmission would cover the transmission of almost all tissues. Thus, for most organs radioactivity can be quantified by direct comparison with radioactive blood calibration samples.
authors.affiliation: Metabolism Research and Residue Analysis, Bayer AG, Leverkusen, Germany.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Klein
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Binder
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Steinke
mesh_terms: D000042:Absorption; D000818:Animals; D001345:Autoradiography / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes / Q000032:analysis / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D008163:Luminescent Measurements; D011786:Quality Control; D011874:Radiometry / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D051381:Rats; D012016:Reference Values; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014915:Whole-Body Counting / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
chemical_list: D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes