Metabolic fate of the new anti-ulcer drug enprostil in animals. 1st communication: absorption, distribution and excretion in the mouse, rat and rabbit

Absorption, distribution and excretion of [3H]-enprostil ((+-)-11a,15a-dihydroxy-9-oxo-16-phenoxy-17,18,19,20-tetranorpr osta -4,5,13(t)-trienoic acid methyl ester, TA-84135), a new anti-ulcer prostaglandin, were studied in mice, rats and rabbits. Radioactivity associated with enprostil was rapidly absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract with Tmax values of 15 or 30 min. Absorption was also efficient inasmuch as approximately 80% of an oral dose was recovered in bile and urine in 24 h in bile duct-cannulated rats. Experiments in pylorus-ligated, bile duct-cannulated rats demonstrated that enprostil was mainly absorbed from the intestine, rather than from the stomach. In mice given oral doses of 2, 8 and 32 micrograms/kg, Cmax and AUC values of enprostil radioequivalents increased proportionately to the increase in dose, indicating linear kinetics over this dose range. Distribution of enprostil-associated radioactivity was investigated in rats by quantitating tritium in various tissues after the oral administration of [3H]-enprostil. Radioactivity in tissues was highest at 15 or 30 min after dosing. Highest levels of radioactivity were found in the stomach and intestines, the organs which came into direct contact with the dose, and the liver and kidney, the organs involved in excretion of enprostil. The rate of elimination of enprostil-associated radioactivity from all tissues and from plasma was similar. Enprostil-associated radioactivity did not accumulate in any tissue. Radioactivity was found in fetuses following oral administration of [3H]-enprostil to rats on the 12th or 19th day of gestation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)