The site of reduction of sulphinpyrazone in the rabbit

1. Comparison of oral and i.v. administration of sulphinpyrazone (10 mg/kg) to rabbits showed that the oral route was associated with an incomplete bioavailability and a six-fold greater formation of the active sulphide metabolite.

2. The bile was an important route of elimination of unchanged sulphinpyrazone in rabbits (18% of an i.v. dose in four hours). Only small amounts of the sulphide appeared in the bile after i.v. administration.

3. Pretreatment with oral antibiotics decreased the area under the plasma concentration-time curve (AUC) for the sulphide but increased that of the parent drug. Excretion of the p-hydroxysulphide metabolite in urine was decreased 30-fold by antibiotic treatment.

4. The contents of the caecum showed the greatest capacity for sulphinpyrazone reduction in vitro. The liver possessed a slight ability to reduce sulphinpyrazone in vitro under anaerobic, but not aerobic, conditions.

5. The gut bacteria are the main site of reduction of sulphinpyrazone to the active sulphide metabolite in the rabbit.

6. These findings contrast with those obtained for sulindac which was reduced extensively under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions by rabbit-liver soluble fraction in vitro. The sulphide metabolites of both sulphinpyrazone and sulindac were oxidized to the parent drug by rabbit-liver microsomes.