Enhancement of selenium excretion in bile by sulfobromophthalein: elucidation of the mechanism.

This work was intended to explore the mechanism whereby sulfobromophthalein (BSP), an electrophilic and cholephilic organic acid, increases the biliary excretion of selenium in rats injected with sodium [75Se]selenite. In such animals, neither BSP-glutathione conjugate nor dibromosulfophthalein, nonelectrophilic congeners of BSP, enhanced the hepatobiliary transport of selenium, suggesting that reaction of nucleophilic selenite metabolites formed in vivo with the injected BSP may be involved. Indeed, HPLC analysis of bile from rats receiving [75Se]selenite and BSP revealed two peaks (X and Y) that were simultaneously detected both by absorbance as BSP metabolites and by radioactivity as [75Se] metabolites, indicating that these represent selenium-containing BSP metabolites. Pretreatment of rats with inhibitors of selenium methylation, such as periodate-oxidized adenosine (PAD) and ethionine, drastically diminished the size of peak X, while increasing (PAD) or not influencing (ethionine) the size of peak Y. This finding indicates that production of metabolite X, but not Y, is dependent on formation of methylated selenium metabolites. A compound chromatographically indistinguishable from that in peak X was formed in vitro during incubation of BSP with methylselenol, suggesting that biliary metabolite X is identical to the reaction product of BSP and selenite-derived methylselenol. Incubation of BSP with selenite in the presence of a thiol, namely glutathione, cysteine or N-acetylcysteine (which convert selenite into nucleophilic products, i.e. the respective selenopersulfides and hydrogen selenide) resulted in product(s) chromatographically identical to the biliary selenium-containing BSP metabolite(s) of peak Y, irrespective of the nature of the thiol used. Thus, biliary metabolite(s) Y may be reaction products of BSP and hydrogen selenide. Finally, BSP significantly diminished exhalation of dimethyl selenide in selenite-injected rats, purportedly because it reacted with precursors of dimethyl selenide, that include hydrogen selenide and methylselenol. In summary, BSP increases biliary excretion of selenium in rats receiving selenite because it forms selenium-containing BSP metabolites that are readily transported into bile. It is suggested that the in vivo reaction of nucleophilic selenite metabolites with electrophilic compounds may influence the fate of selenium and may contribute to some of the effects of this essential and anticarcinogenic metalloid.