Dose-independent pharmacokinetics of clindamycin after intravenous and oral administration to rats: contribution of gastric first-pass effect to low bioavailability.

The pharmacokinetic parameters of clindamycin were evaluated after intravenous (at doses of 50, 100, and 200mg/kg) and oral (at doses of 75, 150, and 300mg/kg) administration of the drug to rats. The first-pass effect of clindamycin was also evaluated after intraportal, intragastric, and intraduodenal administration of the drug at a dose of 150mg/kg to rats. After both intravenous and oral administration of clindamycin, the pharmacokinetic parameters of the drug were dose-independent. Hence, the extent of absolute oral bioavailability (F) was also independent of oral doses. After oral administration of clindamycin (150mg/kg), 7.68% of oral dose was not absorbed up to 24h and F value was 28.2%. The gastric first-pass effect of clindamycin was 60.7% of oral dose. The first-pass effects of clindamycin in the lung, heart, intestine, and liver were almost negligible, if any, in rats. The low F of clindamycin in rats was mainly due to considerable gastric first-pass effect. Clindamycin was stable in rat gastric juice and various buffer solutions having pHs ranging from 1 to 13. The plasma-to-blood cells partition ratio of clindamycin was 7.59 in rat blood. The plasma protein binding of clindamycin in rats was 67.5%.