Physiologically based modeling of the toxicokinetic interaction between toluene and m-xylene in the rat

The present study was undertaken to investigate the mechanism of toxicokinetic interaction between toluene (TOL) and m-xylene (XYL) in vivo in the male Sprague-Dawley rat by physiologically based toxicokinetic (PBTK) modeling. First, the metabolic constants (Vmax and Km) were determined for TOL and XYL individually by conducting a series of closed-chamber inhalation exposures of three rats to starting concentrations of 500 to 4000 ppm. The values of Km (TOL, 0.55 mg/liter; XYL, 0.20 mg/liter) and Vmax (TOL, 4.8 mg/hr/kg; XYL, 8.4 mg/hr/kg) were obtained following best visual fit of PBTK model simulations to experimental data. Then using the same experimental set-up, rats were exposed to three different mixtures of both solvents (500 ppm TOL + 1000 ppm XYL; 1000 ppm TOL + 1000 ppm XYL; 1000 ppm TOL + 500 ppm XYL). The data from the time course of chamber solvent concentrations were analyzed with a binary chemical mixture PBTK model that had four mechanistic hypotheses of metabolic interaction (i.e., no interaction, competitive inhibition, noncompetitive inhibition, and uncompetitive inhibition) quantitatively defined in the liver compartment. The validity of the various model descriptions was verified with open-chamber inhalation exposure data on toxicokinetics of TOL and XYL. Overall, the results of this combined experimental and modeling approach are consistent with a competitive metabolic inhibition between XYL and TOL in the rat.