Abstract
The effects of alloxan-induced diabetes on the relation between transmucosal fluid movement and its effect on sulfanilamide absorption were studied with the in situ recircurating perfusion method using the small intestine of rats with perfusion solution having three different tonicities which were adjusted to hypertonic (1.2%), isotonic (0.9%), and hypotonic (0.6%) solution with sodium chloride, respectively. Sulfanilamide absorption in both of control and diabetic rats was increased with increasing the apparent transmucosal fluid movement. The regression lines obtained from both of them were almost overlapped in a wide range of drug absorption on the horizontal axis and fluid movement on the vertical axis. The transmucosal fluid movement using the entire small intestine in diabetic rats were always significantly greater than in control animals. On both the wet- and the dry-weight basis, the fluid movement was also significantly greater with the diabetics. The total drug absorption was significantly increased in the diabetics than in the controls. The drug absorption in the diabetics was also significantly incresaed than in the controls when compared on the dry-weight basis. The increased drug absorption in the diabetics might be based on the increase of fluid inflow rather than increased transport activity per unit weight of the intestine, since the drug absorption was increased only the increased portion of fluid inflow in the diabetics along the regression line of the controls. These evidences and findings so far obtained might allow us to conclude that the effect of transmucosal fluid movement on the drug absorption was the same characteristic in nature indifferent to the induced mechanisms which were due to artificial and natural devices.
