Clearance of valproic acid from cerebrospinal fluid in anesthetized rabbit

Clearance of valproic acid from brain tissue is believed to occur via a carrier-mediated system(s). The present study was designed to determine whether clearance was capacity-limited (saturable) and whether it occurred primarily at the choroid plexus. Ten rabbits were anesthetized with halothane and surgically prepared for ventriculocisternal perfusion. In group 1 (n = 5) valproic acid was added to blue dextran-containing mock cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) to achieve concentrations of 5, 20, 100, and 500 micrograms.ml-1. The mixture was infused through needles in both cerebral ventricles. The purpose of this group was to determine whether over a large range (100x) of valproic acid concentrations, clearance from CSF was capacity limited (saturable). In group 2 (n = 5) valproic acid concentrations were 3, 10, and 30 microgram.ml-1 and infusion was into the left cerebral ventricle only. The purposes of this group were to determine (a) the magnitude of valproic acid clearance for the "clinical" range of valproic acid in CSF (10-30 micrograms.ml-1), and (b) whether clearance of valproic acid was changed by perfusion across a portion of the choroid plexus surface area (group 2) as compared with perfusion across the entire choroid plexus surface area (group 1). In both groups the percent extraction of valproic acid was calculated from the concentration ratio (valproic acid)out/(valproic acid)in corrected for the rate of CSF formation. In group 1 the percent extraction of valproic acid was 93 +/- 2% (mean +/- SD) at 5 micrograms.ml-1 and stabilized within the range of 58-70% (individual values) at the higher inflow concentrations of valproic acid.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)