Effect of complex formation on the intestinal absorption of tryptophan

Characterization of mitomycin C-induced gastrointestinal damage. I. In situ recirculation experiment

The effects of mitomycin C (MMC), an anti-tumor agent, on the intestinal absorption of various drugs in rats were investigated. Based on microscopic observations, preadministration of a single intravenous dose of MMC (3 mg/kg) caused serious degeneration of epithelial cells, villous atrophy, and mitotic arrest in crypts at 48 hr after pretreatment. At this time point, absorption of sulfanilamide, salicylic acid, cephalexin, and L-tryptophan was shown to be significantly decreased by means of an in situ recirculation technique. The histological changes and the decrease in absorption of sulfanilamide, a model for passively absorbed drugs, were shown to depend on the timing of MMC pretreatment. Maximal effects were observed 48 hr after dosing. The MMC-induced reduction in the absorption of drugs was not a result of differences between treated and control animals with respect to pH of the drug solution, binding of drugs with intraluminal macromolecules, or intestinal mucosal blood flow. The absorption of sulfanilamide from the small intestine in the in situ system correlated well with the wet weight of the small intestine regardless of pretreatment dose or route. This suggests that the change in absorptive surface area of the intestinal mucosa may play a major role in the MMC-induced decrease in absorption capacity of the intestine.

Enhanced gastrointestinal absorption of drugs in rats pretreated with the synthetic immunomodulator, levamisole

The effect of levamisole on drug absorption from the rat small intestine has been investigated by means of an in-situ recirculation technique. The absorption of salicylic acid, sulphanilamide and aminopyrine was significantly increased by the intraperitoneal administration of levamisole (2 mg) 1 day before the absorption studies, but there was no significant effect on absorption from the small intestine of indomethacin, bromthymol blue, sulphafurazole (sulfisoxazole), quinine, sulphanilic acid, phenol red (phenolsulfonphthalein), L-tryptophan and fluorescein isothiocyanate-dextrans. The effect of levamisole on the absorption from the small intestine of salicylic acid was marginally dose- and time-dependent, the maximal effect being observed after pretreatment with 2 mg of levamisole 1 day before the absorption studies. Sulphanilamide, similarly, was better sorbed from the small intestine and also from the stomach in the presence of levamisole. The intraperitoneal administration of levamisole may influence the absorption of some low molecular weight drugs from the gastrointestinal tract.

Kinetics of the absorption of amino acids by the rat intestine in vivo

The kinetics of L-phenylalanine and L-lysine absorption by the rat small intestine in vivo have been studied by perfusing intestinal segments and monitoring simultaneously the uptake of the substrate into the intestinal tissue and its disappearance from the perfusate. The rate of phenylalanine disappearance is a linear function of the substrate concentration. Its uptake into the tissue is rapid and obeys saturation kinetics, but is not concentrative. Both tissue uptake and disappearance rate can be inhibited by leucine or methionine, but are not influenced by hydrophilic neutral or dibasic amino acids. Lysine disappearance from the perfusate and its uptake into the tissue both display saturation kinetics. Lysine transport is quantitatively smaller than that of phenylalanine. Both uptake and disappearance are inhibited by arginine and leucine, but are unaffected by other neutral amino acids or sugars. To analyse the kinetic results, integrated equations were developed to express the final concentration in the perfusate in terms of the original concentration. The disappearance rate was considered as a mixed process (saturable and non-saturable in parallel) in a one-compartment system, and the uptake by the tissue was treated as a two-compartment system in which the amino acid entered the cells by a mixed process but left them by a pure non-saturable mechanism. The results concerning disappearance from the lumen are compatible with the one-compartment model. Phenylalanine absorption can be described by a major non-saturable component and a minor saturable one, while lysine absorption occurs almost entirely by a saturable process. The two-compartment model does not adequately describe the tissue uptake results.