Drug effects on dieldrin storage in rat tissue.

Selected drugs were tested for effectiveness in reducing dieldrin retention by rats. Female rats were fed diets treated to contain 1 ppm dieldrin. The drugs were administered as feed additives or by i.p. injections. The rats were sacrificed after 10 days of treatment and abdominal adipose tissue was analyzed for dieldrin using electron capture gas chromatography.Heptabarbital (40 and 225 mg/kg rat/day), aminopyrine (75 and 350 mg/kg rat/day), tolbutamide (60 and 290 mg/kg rat/day), and phenylbutazone (90 mg/kg rat/day) were effective as feed additives in reducing tissue dieldrin. Heptabarbital was the most effective and reduced the concentration of tissue dieldrin by 80 per cent at the higher dose level. In comparison, DDT (4 mg/kg rat/day) effected a 72 per cent reduction. A contrast with DDT was also observed in trials with i.p. administration of drugs and DDT. In those trials, the duration of the DDT action was apparently greater than that of the drugs.We suggest that suitable drugs might be used to reduce insecticide accumulation in the tissues of animals and man, and for treatment of individuals after over exposure to insecticides.