Hepatic and intestinal first-pass effects of oltipraz in rats

It was reported that the mean value of the extent of absolute oral bioavailability (F) of oltipraz at a dose of 20 mg/kg was 41.2% and only 2.68% of the oral dose was unabsorbed from the gastrointestinal tract in rats. Hence, the low F in rats could be due to considerable first-pass (gastric, intestinal and hepatic) effects. Hence, the first-pass effects of oltipraz were measured after intravenous, intraportal, intragastric and intraduodenal administration of the drug at a dose of 20 mg/kg to rats. The total area under the plasma concentration-time curve from time zero to time infinity (AUC) values between intragastric and intraduodenal administration (213 and 212 microg min/ml) in rats were almost similar, but the values were significantly smaller than that after intraportal administration (316 microg min/ml) in rats, indicating that gastric first-pass effect was almost negligible (due to negligible absorption of oltipraz from rat stomach), but the intestinal first-pass effect of oltipraz was considerable, approximately 32% of the oral dose. The hepatic first-pass effect of oltipraz was approximately 40% based on AUC values between intravenous and intraportal administration (319 versus 536 microg min/ml). Since approximately 65% of the oral oltipraz was absorbed into the portal vein, the value of 40% was equivalent to 25% of the oral dose. The low F of oltipraz in rats was mainly due to considerable hepatic and intestinal first-pass effects.