Characterization of post-surgical alterations in the bile duct-cannulated rat.

The bile duct-cannulated (BDC) rat is a standard animal model used in ADME experiments. The aim of this study was to investigate post-surgical alterations that are relevant to ADME investigations in BDC rats compared with sham- and non-operated animals. Water and food intake was reduced in the animals' post-surgery. This led to a lower body weight in operated animals. In BDC animals, aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels in plasma were transiently elevated and total bile acid levels were reduced. Alpha(1)-acid glycoprotein (AGP) in plasma and the concentration of bile components in bile were elevated. Histopathology showed inflammation in the area of the cannulation between the liver and the small intestine. A microarray-based gene expression and RTq-PCR analysis identified altered expression for several genes involved in drug disposition including the down-regulation of cytochrome P450 enzymes. This led to reduced cytochrome P450 content in the liver and lower metabolic activity in microsomes from BDC and sham-operated rats compared with naïve animals. The results of the study suggest that the post-surgical inflammation leads to physiological changes relevant for drug absorption and disposition. These alterations should be accounted for in the interpretation of ADME studies in BDC animals.

Analysis of erlotinib and its metabolites in rat tissue sections by MALDI quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

A qualitative and quantitative analysis of erlotinib (RO0508231) and its metabolites was carried out on rat tissue sections from liver, spleen and muscle. Following oral administration at a dose of 5 mg/kg, samples were analyzed by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) with mass spectrometry (MS) using an orthogonal quadrupole time-of-flight instrument. The parent compound was detected in all tissues analyzed. The metabolites following drug O-dealkylation could also be detected in liver sections. Sinapinic acid (SA) matrix combined with the dried-droplet method resulted in better conditions for our analysis on tissues. Drug quantitation was investigated by the standard addition method and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis on the tissue extracts. The presence of the parent compound and of its O-demethylated metabolites was confirmed in all tissue types and their absolute amounts calculated. In liver the intact drug was found to be 3.76 ng/mg tissue, while in spleen and muscle 6- and 30-fold lower values, respectively, were estimated. These results were compared with drug quantitation obtained by whole-body autoradiography, which was found to be similar. The potential for direct quantitation on tissue sections in the presence of an internal standard was also investigated using MALDI-MS. The use of alpha-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid (CHCA) as the matrix resulted in better linearity for the calibration curves obtained with reference solutions of the drug when compared to SA, but on tissue samples no reliable quantitative analysis was possible owing to the large variability in the signal response. MS imaging experiments using MALDI in MS/MS mode allowed visualizing the distribution of the parent compound in liver and spleen tissues. By calculating the ratio between the total ion intensities of MS images for liver and spleen sections, a value of 6 : 1 was found, which is in good agreement with the quantitative data obtained by LC-MS/MS analysis.

The distribution pattern of radioactivity across different tissues in quantitative whole-body autoradiography (QWBA) studies.

This study explored whether common rules exist for the distribution patterns across tissues in tissue distribution studies. To investigate this we tested whether tissue:plasma partition coefficients (PCs) of radioactivity are correlated with muscle:plasma PCs. The relationships between PCs of radioactivity in muscle and those in other tissues were investigated in 25 tissues for 20 structurally unrelated drug candidates. Tissue distribution data were obtained by quantitative whole-body autoradiography. Linear regression analysis was performed for each tissue. Radioactivity from basic and acidic/neutral compounds was analyzed separately. Results for acidic/neutral compounds: for the majority of the tissues investigated, the tissue:plasma PCs were well correlated with muscle:plasma PCs (R2 > 0.7). Correlations were worse (R2 < 0.7) in blood, white fat, excretory organs and tissues protected by a penetration barrier (e.g. brain). Slope factors for the regression ranged from 0.2 (blood) to 3.8 (Harderian gland) and were correlated with neutral lipid contents in tissues. Results for basic compounds: in most tissues, slope factors appeared to be higher than for acidic/neutral compounds. Correlations, however, were poorer than for acidic/neutral compounds. Overall, the present study demonstrates that muscle:plasma PCs are indicative of the overall tissue distribution of drug-related material, as they are well correlated with tissue:plasma PCs in most other tissues. Correlations for acidic/neutral compounds differ from those for basic compounds. The found PC relationships provide an explanation for the distribution pattern across tissues usually seen in tissue distribution studies.