The kinetics of biliary excretion of the main two photoproducts after injection into Gunn rats were examined. The photoproducts that are obtained from experiments in vitro consist of unknown pigment, photobilirubin IXa and a small amount of (ZZ)-bilirubin IXa. It was confirmed previously that the first two photoproducts are identical with the main two photoproducts obtained in vivo. In experiments on four animals, the average of total biliary recoveries of unknown pigment was 81.4%, and that of photobilirubin IXa in the bile estimated by the Sigma-minus method was 29.8 min and that for unknown pigment was 4.3 min. The rate of thermal reversion of photobilirubin IXa to (ZZ)-bilirubin IXa in the bile at 37 degrees C was very rapid, i.e. its half-life was 6.2 min.
