Disposition of a soluble chromate in the isolated perfused rat liver.

The uptake of potassium dichromate in the isolated perfused rat liver was almost complete after one hour of perfusion. No significant sex differences in chromium distribution were observed. At the end of the experiments (one hour), about 60% of the applied Cr(VI) dose (312 micrograms Cr/liver) was located in the cytosol, 14% was in the mitochondria, 9% in the microsomal pellet and 2% was associated with the nuclei. Gel chromatography of the cytosol showed that most of the chromium was in fractions with an apparent molecular weight of 6000 Da and absorption maxima at 410 nm and 548 nm. Similar optical properties and molecular weight are characteristic of GSH-Cr complexes formed by reaction of Cr(VI) with GSH in vitro.