Urinary excretion of metabolites following a single dermal dose of [14C]methyl parathion in pregnant rats

The identification and kinetics of urinary excretion of metabolites of uniformly phenyl-labeled O,O-dimethyl O-4-nitrophenyl phosphorothioate ([¹⁴C]methyl parathion) were carried out following a single dermal dose of 10.0 mg (10 μCi)/kg in pregnant Sprague–Dawley rats at 14–18 days of gestation. Urine was collected at each time interval of 1, 2, 4, 12, 24, 48, 72, and 96 h after dosing. Total p-nitrophenol in the conjugated and non-conjugated metabolites was measured as a marker of methyl parathion exposure. Elimination of radioactivity in the urine was rapid. Of the total ¹⁴C urinary excretion, 30% of the dose was excreted within 4 h, while 50 and 90% of the dose were recovered in the urine by 24 and 96 h, respectively. Excretion rate of total radioactivity was 60 μg methyl parathion equivalent/h (1.4 mg/day). By the end of the 96-h experiment, conjugated and non-conjugated metabolites accounted for 78.1 and 21.9%, respectively. Of the non-conjugated metabolites, p-nitrophenol and O,O-dimethyl O-4-nitrophenyl phosphate (methyl paraoxon) were identified by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) that accounted for 20%, and 1.9% of total urinary excretion, respectively. Appearance and disappearance rate constants of p-nitrophenol in urine were 0.12 and 0.048 μg/h, respectively. Conjugated metabolites were classified as: glucuronides 12% of urinary excretion, sulfates 3%, hot sulfuric acid hydrolysable residues 47% and 16.1% remained as unidentified water soluble metabolites. Direct hot acid hydrolysis of urine yielded 49% of extractable ¹⁴C-radioactivity compared to 62% when hot acid hydrolysis followed the enzymatic hydrolysis. The presence of the conjugated metabolites as the major class of metabolites of the total excretion indicates that determining only unbound p-nitrophenol as a biological marker for methyl parathion exposure underestimates total urinary excretion of p-nitrophenol. Sequential enzymatic and acid hydrolyses of urine prior solvent extraction are necessary for complete recovery of p-nitrophenol. The results indicate that the present method would show that the pregnant field worker or a housewife being at a greater risk than previously thought.