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Minor contribution of biliary excretion in lithium elimination in rats

  • Yuichi Uwai EMAIL logo , Tatsuya Kawasaki and Tomohiro Nabekura
Published/Copyright: February 9, 2015

Abstract

Background: Lithium, which is often used for the treatment of bipolar disorders, is mainly recovered into urine after being orally administered. Due to the fact that it is completely absorbed via the gastrointestinal tract, it remains unknown whether biliary excretion is involved in the lithium disposition. In this study, we examined biliary excretion of lithium in rats and compared these with renal excretion.

Materials and methods: After the injection of lithium chloride to femoral vein, plasma levels and excretion into urine and bile of lithium were evaluated.

Results: After its intravenous administration as a bolus, the plasma concentration of lithium decreased time-dependently. Until 60 min, 6.47% and 0.694% of injected lithium were excreted into urine and bile, respectively. The biliary clearance of lithium was calculated to be 0.0779 mL/min/kg, and this was 11.3% of the renal clearance.

Conclusions: These findings suggest the low ability of the liver to eliminate lithium from plasma in comparison with the kidney in rats.


Corresponding author: Yuichi Uwai, PhD, Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, Aichi Gakuin University, 1-100, Kusumoto, Chikusa, Nagoya, 464-8650 Japan, Tel: 81-52-757-6785, Fax: 81-52-757-6799, E-mail:

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Grant No. 26860117).

Author contributions: All the authors accept responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.

Research funding: None declared.

Employment or leadership: None declared.

Honorarium: None declared.

Conflict of interest: The funding organization(s) played no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the report for publication.

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Received: 2014-11-4
Accepted: 2015-1-9
Published Online: 2015-2-9
Published in Print: 2015-3-1

©2015 by De Gruyter

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