The fate of nicotinamide methochloride and the effect of liver poisons on its elimination rate in the rat

Abstract

Expts. carried out in vitro produced no evidence that destruction of nicotinamide methochloride occurred in the liver; a considerable portion of it, either formed in the liver or administered to a rat, was eliminated in the bile. Whether this accounts for the total amt., not eliminated in the urine, could not be decided. An emulsion of intestinal bacteria destroyed much of the nicotinamide methochloride present in the medium. The fecal elimination of nicotinamide methochloride depends on the elimination in the bile, its destruction and synthesis by intestinal bacteria and perhaps on reabsorption from the intestines. Fecal output affords no conclusive evidence regarding the nicotinamide state of the body. Liver poisons such as chloroform, CCl4 or yellow P cause a temporary rise in nicotinamide methochloride output, probably due to tissue destruction, but they also reduce temporarily the efficiency of the methylating mechanism of the liver.