Radioautographic Visualization of Sulfur-35 Disposition in the Articular Cartilage and Bone of Suckling Rats Following Injection of Labeled Sodium Sulfate

Abstract

In a previous paper (1) it was reported that after intmperitoneal administration of sulfur-35 in the form of sodium sulfate to suckling rats, 7 days of age, the isotol~e was demonstrable in the knee joint cartilage during the following 164 hours. Up to the 24th hour the concentration of sulfur-35 was on the increase and thereafter up to the 164th hour its concentration decreased, but slowly. It was suggested in the same paper that most, if not all, of the sulfur-35 retained after 24 to 48 hours in the knee joint cartilage may have been retained therein as chondroitin sulfate. This suggestion was based on observations that the sulfur-35 concentration was not appreciably decreased in an aqueous solution of cartilage, which had been removed from suckling rats injected with labeled sodium sulfate by the addition to the solution of solid barium carbonate to saturation followed by heating for 6 hours on a steam-bath. Had the sulfur-35 been present as inorganic sulfate or in any form which was insoluble as the barium salt it is highly probable that it would have been removed from the solution by the centrifugation and filtration which followed the heating period with barium carbonate, whereas the barium salt of chondroitin sulfate would have remained in solution. This suggestion has been substantiated by work reported in a more recent paper (2) on the isolation of chondroitin sulfate with sulfur-35 incorporated therein after administration of this isotope as sodium sulfate.Our curiosity was aroused as to how the isotope, sulfur-35, when given as sodium sulfate was taken up and distributed in the epiphyseal cartilage of suckling rats. An attempt to answer this question by the radioautographic technique has been made. The results are here reported. MethodSuckling rats of the Whelan strain were used. In one series of experiments 2 mg. of S atagged sodium sulfate I-(8.24 X 10 s C.P.M.) in 0.I ml. distilled water was injected intraperi-I The snifur-35 used in this investigation was supplied by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, on allocation from the United States Atomic Energy Commission.The activity was determined on the BaSO4 precipitated from an aliquot of the solution

Experimental Osteonecrosis of the Femoral Head in Adult Rabbits

“…19 A and B) autoradiography confirm the findings by light microscopy concerning the division of cells, their differentiation to osteoblasts, and the formation of new, living bone on the surfaces of the dead trabeculae. By the end of [10][11][12] weeks, corresponding quite closely to the time it takes for the marrow vascular spaces of the entire femoral head to be revascularized and repopulated with living mesenchyma1 cells, evidence of new bone formation on the surfaces of dead trabeculae is observed histologically, by ultraviolet fluorescence microscopy and by H3-proline and H3-glycine autoradiography. However, at this time the process is much further advanced biologically in the regions adjacent to the osteotomy site where the repair process began than in the regions of the femoral head more distal from the osteotomy site.…”

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“…S10). Qualitatively similar profiles were found for distal tibia explants from chick embryos and for in vivo incorporation into humeri of 4-and 7-day-old rats (37)(38)(39)(40). It has been unclear, however, if those profiles were distorted by limited […”

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