Biphenyl, 4-Chlorobiphenyl, and 2-Hydroxybiphenyl 
After rabbits ingested biphenyl or 4-chlorobiphenyl, 644 and 652, 
respectively, was accounted for in the urine primarily as the correspond- 
ing glucosiduronic acid and smaller amounts of phenols and ether sulfates. 
From the urine, 4-hydroxybiphenyl and 4-biphenyl glucosiduronic acid 
were isolated and identified after ingestion of biphenyl. After ingestion 
of 4-Chlorobiphenyl, 4-(p-Chlorophenyl) phenol and the corresponding 
glucosiduronic acid were also isolated from the urine. The ethereal 
sulfates were not identified (128). In the urine of the rat, 4-hydroxy-, 
4,4'-dihydroxy- and 3,4-dihydroxybiphenyl and their conjugates and 
biphenylmercapturic acid were found (1490). 
Liver microsomal preparations from New Zealand white rabbits converted 
biphenyl into 2- and 4-hydroxybiphenyl (1611). Other studies with rabbits, 
indicated that the 4-isomer and practically no 2-isomer were found (313). 
The extent of 4-hydroxylation varies with species being poor in cat and 
trout and high in mouse and coypu. Ability to form 2-hydroxybiphenyl is 
almost absent in livers of adult rabbits and rats, guinea pigs, hens, trout, 
and fox. Livers of mice, hamsters, cats, coypus, frogs, and young rabbits 
and rats form measurable amounts of the 2-isomer (313). 
2-Hydroxybiphenyl, orally administered to rats, was excreted in the 
urine as the gluronides and sulfates of 2-hydroxybiphenyl and the meta- 
bolite 2,5-dihydroxybiphenyl. Traces of another metabolite, thought to 
be the polyhydroxy compound 2,4-dihydroxybiphenyl, were observed but 
identification could not be made (415). 
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