Effect of pregnancy on tissue distribution of salicylate in rats

The effect of pregnancy on tissue distribution of salicylate was studied by comparing both pharmacokinetic and protein-binding parameters between 20-day-pregnant rats and nonpregnant (control) rats. In the pregnant rats, the volume of distribution increased significantly (p less than 0.05) from 164 ml/kg of the control to 225 ml/kg, and the total body clearance also increased significantly (p less than 0.05) from 12.1 ml/hr/kg of the control to 19.8 ml/hr/kg. But these changes did not affect the plasma disappearance half-life of salicylate in the pregnant rats. The serum unbound fraction (fs) of the pregnant rats at 8 hr after iv administration of salicylate increased remarkably from 0.14 of the control to 0.67. The fs in the fetal serum (0.41) was lower than that in the maternal serum in spite of the lower albumin concentration in the fetal serum. A nonlinear serum protein binding was observed both in the control and in the fetal rats, but not observed in the pregnant rats. In the pregnant rats, the tissue-to-serum concentration ratios (Kp) of all tissues studied were larger than those in the control rats, and the values of Kp in the fetal were larger than those in the maternal. To elucidate these difference in Kp values between the pregnant and control rats, a mathematical model was proposed, where salicylate was distributed in the interstitial fluid, bound to the interstitial albumin, and translocated into the intracellular fluid according to the pH partition theory. The Kp values of most tissues in the control and pregnant rats were predicted successfully by using this model.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)