A simple enzymic digestion procedure of intact tissue samples in pharmacokinetic drug analysis

A simple procedure is described for the enzymic digestion of intact solid tissue samples. The samples are digested in an enzyme suspension containing collagenase and subtilisin Carlsberg without additional grinding or homogenizing. Bacterial growth during digestion is reduced by addition of an antibiotic solution. The resulting digests contain only very small tissue fragments. The total digestion is carried out at physiological conditions of temperature and pH, which makes the procedure suitable for inclusion in extraction procedures in a broad pH range. Since a minimum of sample manipulation is required, the procedure can be appropriately included in pharmacokinetic studies in which large series of samples are involved.