Drug distribution studies with microdialysis. III: Extracellular concentration of caffeine in adipose tissue in man.

Microdialysis was applied to estimate the extracellular concentration of caffeine in subcutaneous abdominal adipose tissue of five healthy volunteers after oral administration of approximately 5 mg/kg (300 or 400 mg) of caffeine. The peak extracellular levels were in the range of 20 - 80 microM. The time-course in blood and in extracellular fluid was similar but the plateau concentrations were not closely correlated. The estimated mean concentration of five individuals was similar in blood and extracellular fluid. The intraindividual variation between probes was found to be small compared to the interindividual variation (8% versus 43%). It is concluded that microdialysis yield useful data on drug distribution in man and that distribution to adipose tissue may not strictly follow the concentrations in blood. A comparison with available information of the in vitro properties of caffeine shows that the levels attained in the extracellular fluid were too small to significantly affect phosphodiesterase but sufficiently high to block adenosine receptors.