IV Miguel R. Covian Symposium: new challenges for physiologists

Physiological models in pharmacokinetics are instrumental in understanding the distribution and elimination of drugs within the body. These models describe the drug concentration within target organs, influenced by factors such as drug uptake, tissue volume, and blood flow. Drug uptake is governed by the partition coefficient, which signifies the drug concentration ratio in tissue to that in the blood. The blood flow rate to a specific tissue is expressed as Qt, and the rate of change in tissue...

Physiological barriers are semi-permeable cellular structures restricting drug diffusion into intracellular compartments and tissues. There are six types of physiological barriers: blood endothelial, cell membrane, blood-brain, blood-cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), blood-placenta, and blood-testis barriers.
The blood endothelial barrier is the most porous of these. It allows all small ionized, un-ionized, and lipophilic molecules to pass through the endothelial lining into the interstitial space...

The tonicity of a solution determines if a cell gains or loses water in that solution. The tonicity depends on the permeability of the cell membrane for different solutes and the concentration of nonpenetrating solutes in the solution within and outside of the cell. If a semipermeable membrane hinders the passage of some solutes but allows water to follow its concentration gradient, water moves from the side with low osmolarity (i.e., less solute) to the side with higher osmolarity (i.e.,...

Tonicity describes the amount of solute in a solution. The measure of the tonicity of a solution, or the total amount of solutes dissolved in a specific amount of solution, is called its osmolarity. Three terms—hypotonic, isotonic, and hypertonic—are used to relate the osmolarity of a cell to the osmolarity of the extracellular fluid that contains the cells. In a hypotonic solution, such as tap water, the extracellular fluid has a lower concentration of solutes than the fluid inside the cell,...

Drug clearance is a critical pharmacokinetic process involving the irreversible removal of drugs from the body through various organs over a specified time period. Physiological models are indispensable in determining organ-specific clearance, defined by the proportion of the drug eliminated per unit of time from the organ's blood volume.
The organ's clearance rate depends on the blood flow to the organ and the extraction ratio (E). The extraction ratio describes the organ's proficiency in drug...