PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Makoto Aoki AU - Kazuho Okudaira AU - Makoto Haga AU - Ryuichiro Nishigaki AU - Masahiro Hayashi TI - Contribution of Rat Pulmonary Metabolism to the Elimination of Lidocaine, Midazolam, and Nifedipine AID - 10.1124/dmd.110.032227 DP - 2010 Jul 01 TA - Drug Metabolism and Disposition PG - 1183--1188 VI - 38 IP - 7 4099 - http://dmd.aspetjournals.org/content/38/7/1183.short 4100 - http://dmd.aspetjournals.org/content/38/7/1183.full SO - Drug Metab Dispos2010 Jul 01; 38 AB - The contribution of the lung to drug metabolism was investigated in rats and the possibility of prediction of in vivo metabolism from in vitro studies using rat pulmonary microsomes was assessed. Lidocaine, midazolam, or nifedipine was administered to rats at a dose of 10 mg/kg by the intra-arterial, intravenous, and intraportal routes. The pulmonary extraction ratios of lidocaine, midazolam, and nifedipine, calculated from the area under the time-plasma concentration curve (AUC) after the intra-arterial and intravenous administrations, were 39.0 ± 0.5, 18.3 ± 0.7, and 12.3 ± 0.3%, respectively. The hepatic extraction ratios of lidocaine, midazolam, and nifedipine, calculated from the AUC after the intraportal and intravenous administrations, were 68.0 ± 3.3, 52.6 ± 0.4, and 13.5 ± 0.2%, respectively. These results showed that both the liver and the lung contributed to the metabolism of these drugs. The above in vivo pulmonary extraction ratios correlated with the in vitro intrinsic clearance values, which were corrected with the protein unbound ratio in microsomes and plasma, suggesting that pulmonary extraction ratios can be predicted quantitatively from in vitro data. The pulmonary intrinsic clearance values of lidocaine, midazolam, and nifedipine in rat microsomes were lower than their hepatic intrinsic clearance, showing that there was an organ difference in metabolism between the liver and lung. Our results support the importance of the estimation of pulmonary metabolism to predict the total clearance more accurately. Copyright © 2010 by The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics