Determination of Tissue Spaces of the Isolated Hindlimb of the Rat Using Netilmicin as an Extracellular Space Indicator

Abstract

Abstract The kinetic behaviour of drugs in extracellular space is of interest as it influences the drug's access to, and permanence in, those areas of the body upon which drugs exert pharmacological or toxicological actions. A series of experiments was carried out to characterize the vascular, interstitial and cellular spaces of the isolated hindlimb of the rat. Certain specific experimental conditions were met: body weight was under 230 g to avoid fat tissue in the preparations; a perfusion flow rate of 3 mL min−1; and 3% of bovine albumin in the perfusate supplied at 25°C to the tissues. The isolation of the hindlimb followed the method described by Ruderman with some modifications to restrict the perfusion to the right hindlimb. Tritiated water, netilmicin and methylene blue were injected separately and efferent fluid samples were collected for 15 min after solute injection. Analysis of the efferent curves was performed to calculate the statistical moments (AUC, area under concentration-time curve; MTT, mean transit time; VTT, variance of mean transit times) and solute distribution volumes, which were subsequently used to estimate the tissue spaces of the isolated hindlimb. The results revealed that methyl blue and netilmicin can be respectively used as alternatives to radiolabeled indicators of the vascular and extracellular spaces of tissues included in the rat isolated hindlimb.