Effect of adjuvant-induced systemic inflammation in rats on hepatic disposition kinetics of taurocholate

It has been reported that the adjuvant-induced inflammation could affect drug metabolism in liver. Here we further investigated the effect of inflammation on drug transport in liver using taurocholate as a model drug. The hepatic disposition kinetics of [(3)H] taurocholate in perfused normal and adjuvant-treated rat livers were investigated by the multiple indicator dilution technique and data were analyzed by a previously reported hepatobiliary taurocholate transport model. Real-time RTPCR was also performed to determine the mRNA expression of liver bile salt transporters in normal and diseased livers. The uptake and biliary excretion of taurocholate were impaired in the adjuvant-treated rats as shown by decreased influx rate constant k(in) (0.65 +/- 0.09 vs. 2.12 +/- 0.30) and elimination rate constant k(be) (0.09 +/- 0.02 vs. 0.17 +/- 0.04) compared with control rat group, whereas the efflux rate constant k(out) was greatly increased (0.07 +/- 0.02 vs. 0.02 +/- 0.01). The changes of mRNA expression of liver bile salt transporters were found in adjuvant-treated rats. Hepatic taurocholate extraction ratio in adjuvant-treated rats (0.86 +/- 0.05, n = 6) was significantly reduced compared with 0.93 +/- 0.05 (n = 6) in normal rats. Hepatic extraction was well correlated with altered hepatic ATP content (r(2) = 0.90). In conclusion, systemic inflammation greatly affects hepatic ATP content/production and associated transporter activities and causes an impairment of transporter-mediated solute trafficking and pharmacokinetics.