The Absorption of Cobalt from the Gastro-intestinal Tract of the Rat

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Abstract
A radioactive tracer technique based on the measurement of the radioactivity appearing in the urine following oral administration of Co58 was used to study the effect of a number of substances and cobalt concentrations on the absorption of cobalt from the gastro-intestinal tract of the rat. Following oral administration of tracer amounts of Co58, as cobaltous or cobaltic chloride or as complexes of the cobaltous ion with glycine, blood serum, or lactose, about 30% of the metal is absorbed. Absorption is increased to about 40% when the cobalt is administered in cow''s milk. Histidine, lysine, glycylglycine, EDTA, casein and cobaltic glycine complex all depress the absorption of the metal. Administration of larger amounts of cobalt results in the percentage absorption decreasing by a factor of about 2 as the dose rises to 100 [mu]g; from 100 to 1000 ug the percentage absorption decreases very slowly indicating that the rat has only a very limited ability to regulate the total amount of cobalt absorbed from the gastro-intestinal tract.