Comparison of the time courses and potencies of the vasodilator effects of nifedipine and felodipine in the human forearm.

In a previous study we investigated the differential time courses of the vasodilator effect of various calcium antagonists (CA) in small isolated rat mesenteric arteries (van der Lee et al., Fundam Clin Pharmacol, 1998: 12: 607-12). We concluded that the differences observed could be due to differences in lipophilicity between the CA studied. A measure for lipophilicity is the logarithm of the membrane-partition coefficient (log P). The log P values of nifedipine and felodipine are 2.50 and 4.46, respectively. It was the aim of the present study to compare the time courses of nifedipine and felodipine effects by means of forearm venous occlusion plethysmography in healthy subjects. Healthy male non-smoking volunteers (age 31 +/- 7 years, n = 14) were studied. Informed consent was obtained prior to each experiment from all subjects. The study commenced with the vehicle of either CA (NaCl 0.9% or a PEG400-solution for nifedipine and felodipine, respectively). In four subsequent runs, increasing concentrations of CA were studied for 20 min each, at an infusion rate of 0.3 ml/min. During experiments both hands were excluded from the circulation using small wrist cuffs, inflated to at least 40 mmHg over systolic blood pressure. Mean arterial pressure remained stable in all subjects (88 +/- 3 and 83 +/- 3 mmHg for nifedipine and felodipine, respectively), thus a systemic effect of the CA was not likely. Log IC50 values were -7.46 +/- 0.17 and -8.47 +/- 0.14 for nifedipine and felodipine, respectively (p < 0.01). Averaged KD values were 4.3 +/- 0.6 and 4.6 +/- 0.6 for nifedipine and felodipine, respectively (n.s.). In this model, felodipine appears to be a more potent vasodilator than nifedipine. The 100-fold difference in lipophilicity between the two CA tested is apparently not sufficient to cause major differences in K(D) values in the plethysmography experimental set-up.