Deuterioglucose: alteration of biodistribution by an isotope effect.

Carbon-14 glucose, in which all carbon-hydrogen bonds were replaced by carbon-deuterium bonds (deuterioglucose), was extracted from algae growing in heavy water and exposed to [14C]carbon dioxide. The identity of [14C]deuterioglucose was confirmed by comparison with authentic material on two high performance liquid chromatography and two thin layer chromatography systems. Fermentation to lactate followed by oxidative decarboxylation demonstrated that 35% of the 14C was on carbons 3 and 4 for deuterioglucose isolated from a 24-hr algal incubation, and 61% for a 20-min incubation. Mice were injected intravenously with either (24-hr) deuterioglucose or with 14C-labeled (protio)glucose labeled uniformly. The deuterioglucose cleared more slowly from the blood, while heart and brain accumulated label more slowly. Tissue concentrations peaked at later times for deuterioglucose. Deuteration may be a useful feature of radiopharmaceutical design.