Background Paper on Toxicology of Melamine and Its Analogues*
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Background Paper on Toxicology of Melamine and Its Analogues* Prepared for the WHO Expert Meeting on Toxicological and Health Aspects of Melamine and Cyanuric Acid In collaboration with FAO Supported by Health Canada Health Canada, Ottawa, Canada 1–4 December 2008 Prepared by R. Reimschuessel, Center for Veterinary Medicine, United States Food and Drug Administration, Laurel, MD, USA D.G. Hattan and Y. Gu, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, United States Food and Drug Administration, College Park, MD, USA * The opinions and information in this paper are those of the authors and do not represent the views and/or policies of the United States Food and Drug Administration. World Health Organization Geneva, 2009 CONTENTS 1. MELAMINE..........................................................................................................................1 1.1 Absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion of melamine (MEL).....................1 1.1.1 Rats ........................................................................................................................1 1.1.2 Pigs.........................................................................................................................1 1.1.3 Other species..........................................................................................................1 1.2 Short-term studies of toxicity.........................................................................................1 1.2.1 Rodents ..................................................................................................................1 1.2.2 Dogs .......................................................................................................................3 1.2.3 Sheep......................................................................................................................3 1.2.4 Humans ..................................................................................................................4 1.3 Long-term studies of toxicity and carcinogenicity ........................................................5 1.3.1 NTP 2-year carcinogenicity study .........................................................................5 1.3.2 Other rodent studies ...............................................................................................5 1.4 Other end-points.............................................................................................................6 1.4.1 Genotoxicity...........................................................................................................6 1.4.2 Reproductive and developmental toxicity .............................................................6 1.4.3 Other toxicity.........................................................................................................6 2. CYANURIC ACID................................................................................................................7 2.1 Absorption, distribution and excretion of cyanuric acid (CYA)....................................7 2.1.1 Rats ........................................................................................................................7 2.1.2 Dogs .......................................................................................................................7 2.1.3 Humans ..................................................................................................................7 2.2 Short-term studies of toxicity.........................................................................................7 2.2.1 Rodents ..................................................................................................................7 2.2.2 Sheep......................................................................................................................8 2.3 Long-term studies of toxicity and carcinogenicity ........................................................9 2.3.1 Mice .......................................................................................................................9 2.3.2 Rats ........................................................................................................................9 2.3.3 Dogs .....................................................................................................................10 2.4 Other end-points...........................................................................................................10 2.4.1 Developmental toxicity........................................................................................10 2.4.2 Reproductive toxicity...........................................................................................10 2.4.3 Mutagenicity ........................................................................................................11 3. COMBINED MELAMINE (MEL) AND CYANURIC ACID (CYA) ...............................11 3.1 Case reports..................................................................................................................11 3.2 Short-term experimental data.......................................................................................11 3.2.1 Rats ......................................................................................................................12 3.2.2 Cats ......................................................................................................................12 3.2.3 Fish.......................................................................................................................13 3.2.4 Pigs.......................................................................................................................13 3.2.5 Chickens...............................................................................................................13 3.3 Toxicity of the melamine–cyanurate complex.............................................................13 3.4 Crystal characteristics ..................................................................................................13 3.5 Clinical effects .............................................................................................................14 3.6 Residues .......................................................................................................................14 iii Toxicological and Health Aspects of Melamine and Cyanuric Acid 4. COMMENTS.......................................................................................................................16 4.1 Mechanism of renal failure: melamine–cyanurate crystalline nephropathy compared with uric acid nephropathy...........................................................................................16 4.2 Special considerations of infant physiology ................................................................17 4.3 Comparative aspects of uric acid metabolism .............................................................16 4.4 Mechanism of action: Melamine alone........................................................................18 4.5 Comment on uric acid solubility..................................................................................18 4.6 Knowledge gaps...........................................................................................................18 4.7 Recommendations and future work .............................................................................19 5. REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................19 iv 1. MELAMINE 1.1 Absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion of melamine (MEL) 1.1.1 Rats MEL is rapidly absorbed and attains maximal plasma concentrations in 60 min following administration of a single oral dose to male Fischer 344 rats. It appears to distribute to the body water, as concentrations in blood, plasma and liver are similar. The plasma half- life is approximately 2.7 h (Mast et al., 1983). Radiolabelled MEL measurements support the conclusion that urinary elimination is virtually the only route of excretion (93% ± 4% of dose). Excretion of MEL by respiration and faeces were each less than 1% of the administered dose. The urinary half-life is 3 h, and urinary clearance 2.5 mg/min (Mast et al., 1983). MEL is eliminated essentially unchanged by the kidney. The percentage of urinary 14C present as MEL was the same as the radiochemical purity of the dosed material. Almost all (97–100%) 14C in the liver, blood and plasma was present as MEL. The authors concluded that the male Fischer 344 rat does not metabolize MEL, because all radioactivity in plasma and urine was in the same form as that administered in the dosing solution (Worzalla et al., 1974; Mast et al., 1983). 1.1.2 Pigs MEL administered intravenously to five weanling pigs at a dose of 6.13 mg/kg body weight (bw) had a half-life of 4.04 ± 0.37 h, clearance of 0.11 ± 0.01 l/h per kilogram and volume of distribution of 0.61 ± 0.04 l/kg (Baynes et al., 2008). To establish an appropriate withdrawal interval, a physiologically based pharmacokinetic model for MEL was developed for rats and extrapolated to pigs. The rat model underpredicted plasma concentrations, but better predicted tissue residues. Correlation values for plasma, kidney and liver were 0.59, 0.76 and 0.73, respectively. The pig model underpredicted early plasma time points but had greater accuracy at later time points, which is relevant to withdrawal times (Buur, Baynes & Riviere, 2008). 1.1.3 Other species Limited information