Studies on the different metabolic pathways of antipyrine in rats: influence of phenobarbital and 3-methylcholanthrene treatment.

1. The amounts of antipyrine and its metabolites excreted in 24 h urine after i.v. injection of 10 mg antipyrine into male Wistar rats were quantified after enzymic hydrolysis with beta-glucuronidase/aryl sulphatase. In 24 h 2.7% of the administered dose was excreted as unchanged antipyrine, 13.3% as 4-hydroxyantipyrine, 7.4% as norantipyrine, 28.9% as 3-hydroxymethylantipyrine and 1.1% as 3-carboxyantipyrine. 2. Treatment with phenobarbital decreased the antipyrine half-life from 65 to 30 min, but did not significantly change the urinary metabolite profile. Only the amount of 3-carboxyantipyrine was significantly different and increased from 1.1 to 2.6% dose. 3. 3-Methylcholanthrene treatment resulted in a decrease of antipyrine half-life from 72 to 37 min. After treatment 4-hydroxyantipyrine was increased from 13.4% to 25.6% dose, whereas 3-hydroxymethylantipyrine was decreased from 26.8% to 8.5% and 3-carboxyantipyrine from 1.3% to 0.2% of the dose respectively; norantipyrine was unchanged. 4. It is concluded that different types of hepatic cytochrome P-450 may be involved in the formation of 4-hydroxyantipyrine on one hand and the formation of 6-hydroxymethylantipyrine on the other. Another possibility is that in methylcholanthrene-treated animals another haemoprotein is formed that results in the formation of more 4-hydroxyantipyrine and less 3-hydroxymethylantipyrine. In any case, the urinary metabolite profile of antipyrine can be used to study changes in the activity of different cytochromes in drug metabolism studies.