Erratum

In the article, “Novel kinetic insights into treatment of unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia: phototherapy and orlistat treatment in Gunn rats” by Frans J.C. Cuperus et al. (Pediatr Res 59:506–512), the authors report that the fractional turnover of ³H-unconjugated bilirubin was erroneously calculated from log10 instead of ln (natural logarithmic) semi-logarithmic plots of the specific activity. The reported fractional turnover (Table 2, Fig. 3 and Fig. 4) and total turnover (Table 2) should therefore be multiplied with 2.3 in all experimental groups. As a result, the net transmucosal flux of unconjugated bilirubin (UCB; Fig. 4), calculated as the difference between fractional turnover and fractional biliary excretion, increases in all experimental groups. Corrected information is presented in Table 1 of this erratum.

Table 1 Corrected fractional turnover and total turnover of ³H-bilirubin and net transmucosal UCB flux

The corrected information does not affect the main findings of the study. Significance levels and the linear relation (Table 2 and Fig. 3) are unaltered, and the interpretation of data in these figures remains unchanged. The corrected net transmucosal flux (Fig. 4) indicates transmucosal UCB excretion into the intestinal lumen in all experimental groups, rather than only in the orlistat- and the combined orlistat and phototherapy group. This implies that, as indicated by Schmid and Hammaker (J Clin Invest 42:1720), under control conditions, transmucosal UCB excretion is an important secretory pathway in Gunn rats. The study shows that this secretory pathway is enhanced by orlistat treatment.