Disposition of ingested olestra in weanling mini-pigs

The disposition of ingested olestra in Hanford mini-pigs was examined by following a single oral gavage dose of radiolabelled (U-14C-sucrose) olestra. Eight dosed animals (four/sex) and one undosed animal were killed 1, 3 and 7 days after dosing, and tissues were collected and counted. Urine and faeces were collected continuously and counted. Tissue lipids were extracted and analysed for intact radiolabelled olestra by size exclusion chromatography. Sucrose will be excreted in urine if olestra is absorbed and metabolized. Mean recovery of radiolabel was 96.6% of the administered dose. Of the recovered radiolabel, more than 99.4%, on average, was not absorbed and found in faeces, or cage and animal wash solutions. The absorbed radiolabel (0.6%), was distributed across the carcass, all tissues and blood, or excreted in urine. This radiolabel primarily came from the metabolism of glucose and fructose resulting from the hydrolysis of the trace levels of penta- and lower sucrose esters present in the test material. No radiolabel was found in the olestra-containing fraction of liver lipids, the primary measure of absorbed and non-metabolized olestra, at a detection limit of 0.0002% of dose. A conservative estimate of the amount of 14C-sucrose excreted in the urine was 0.0012%. The total absorption of intact olestra was thus less than 0.0014% of the dose, the sum of the two measures. These results indicate that intact olestra is essentially not absorbed by the weanling mini-pig, an animal with a young developing gastrointestinal tract similar to that of young children (2–5 yr).