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Abstract

So far, most experimental investigations concerning amanitin poisoning have been done in the mouse or in the rat. In order to obtain conditions which could be better compared to human intoxication, we chose the dog for experiments. Among the amatoxins available, there are two compounds, which can be radioactively labelled: 14[C]O-methyl-γ-amanitin and 3[H]demethyl-O-methyl-γ-amanitin. Both these compounds exhibit shortcomings in in vivo experiments. O-methyl-γ- amanitin is as toxic as α-amanitin, the label, but undergoes microsomal oxidation. The second compound is probably stable under in vivo conditions but is 15 times less toxic, and, as we know from the experiments of Chambon’s laboratory1, binds 10 times less effectively to RNA-polymerase. We decided upon the first, more toxic compound.