Metal ion-tetracycline interactions in biological fluids. 2. Potentiometric study of magnesium complexes with tetracycline, oxytetracycline, doxycycline, and minocycline, and discussion of their possible influence on the bioavailability of these antibiotics in blood plasma.

The formation constants of the various complexes formed by magnesium with four tetracycline derivatives, namely, tetracycline itself, oxytetracycline, doxycycline, and minocycline, were determined by potentiometry over large pH ranges under experimental conditions pertaining to blood plasma (37 degrees C, NaCl 0.15 mol dm-3). The results were used, together with those previously obtained on the complexation of these tetracyclines with proton and calcium, to assess the influence of the two alkali earth metal ions on the bioavailability of these drugs in blood plasma. Accordingly, simulations of the distribution of the four tetracyclines into their different proton and metal complex species were calculated. The distributions confirm that, in combination with the protein-bound fraction of the tetracyclines, the metal-bound fraction represents more than 99% of these drugs in plasma, the extent of their free fraction commonly being less than 1%.